State v. Webb’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

12 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 12 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““Act 157 of 1916 declares that the competent witness in any proceeding, civil or criminal, shall be a person of proper understanding. Under the express terms of this statute the wife was made a competent witness for or against her husband; the exercise of the privilege being left entirely to her own inclination and discretion. The husband was powerless under the terms of the statute to prevent his wife from testifying against him on any matters not expressly prohibited by the law. But because of the competency of the wife as a witness, and because she chose to assume a hostile attitude towards her husband, and because her husband did not object to her being sworn as a witness, it does not follow that the wife could be permitted to give illegal, incompetent, and irrelevant testimony, even though such testimony was strictly in rebuttal and would have been otherwise admissible as impeaching testimony. “The statute we have referred to, which makes the husband and wife competent witnesses for or against each other at their option, in unmistakable language declares that private conversations between husband and wife shall be privileged. The statute makes no exception, modification, or reservation, but includes in its terms all private conversations had between husband and wife of whatever nature and character. Nor does the statute take into consideration the mental attitude of the spouse who offers to divulge, to the prejudice of the other spouse, private and confidential conversat”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. State v. Pizzolotto