State v. Hudspeth’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

22 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 22 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““A still further contention is that the court erred in refusing the eighth instruction asked by defendant. The instruction read as follows: ‘The court instructs the jury that the law presumes the innocence, and not the guilt, of the defendant, and this .presumption is to be taken by you as evidence in the defendant’s behalf. This presumption of innocence goes with the defendant throughout the trial and protects him at- every stage of the proceedings, entitling him finally to an acquittal at your hands, unless overcome by other evidence which satisfies you of his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.’ It was refused as asked, the words in italics stricken out, and then given. While the presumption of innocence in favor of a defendant upon trial for a criminal offense is a rebuttable presumption, it requires evidence to overcome it, and to show his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt before he can be convicted, yet the calling it evidence adds no significance to its force or effect. After all, it is still a presumption, which the law indulges in his favor. No error was committed, we think, in the refusal of this instruction as asked.” (State v. Hudspeth, 159 Mo. 178, 209 , 60 S. W. 136 .) “Another instruction refused by the court was as follows: ‘The law in this case presumes '. . . that every man is innocent, . . . and this legal presumption of innocence is to be regarded by the jury in every case as a matter of evidence to the benefit of which the defendant is entitled.’ “The judge ha”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Wolfley