Roberson v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

24 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 24 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Identity may be proved by direct or circumstantial evidence. In fact, identity may be proven by inferences. When there is no direct evidence of the perpetrator’s identity elicited from trial witnesses, no formalized procedure is required for the State to prove the identity of the accused. Proof by circumstantial evidence is not subject to a more rigorous standard than is proof by direct evidence. For the purposes of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, direct and circumstantial evidence are equally probative.”

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

2. “the testimony of even one DNA expert that there is a genetic match between the semen recovered from the victim of a rape and the blood of the defendant, a total stranger, and the statistical probability that anyone else was the source of that semen are 1 in 500 million is legally sufficient to support a guilty verdict”); United States v. Wright, 215 F.3d 1020, 1028 (9th Cir.2000) (”[t]he DNA evidence alone overwhelmingly establishes that Wright was one of the individuals who robbed the Wells Fargo Bank”

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

3. “The State may prove its case by circumstantial evidence if it proves all of the elements of the charged offense beyond a reasonable doubt. The sufficiency of the evidence is determined from the cumulative effect of all the evidence; each fact in isolation need not establish the guilt of the accused. It is important to remember that all the evidence the jury was permitted, properly or improperly, to consider must be taken into account in determining the sufficiency of the evidence.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Neptali Armando Orellana v. State