16 Utah 2d 374 - State v. Smith’s Empirical Analysis
1965
Citation profile
44 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 44 later decisions — most recently April 2019 · most notably Byron Nelson Griggs v. State (2016), State v. Tanner (1983)
44 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on 11 Utah 2d 289 - Samms v. Eccles · 6 Utah 2d 177 - Nokes v. Continental Mining & Milling Co. · 16 Utah 2d 288 - State v. Tuttle · State v. Waid · People v. . Gibson
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 44 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“"[t]wo alternative hazards are confronted. On the one hand, in accepting the testimo-'my of a child there is the danger that she may not be telling the truth, in which event an innocent man may be convicted of crime and suffer the consequences thereof. On the other, if the child's testimony is not accepted, a man guilty of crime, and possibly with the 'potential for more such, will go free. In this connection, it must be borne in mind that when such an offense [assaulting and taking indecent liberties upon a child] is committed; it is done with the greatest possible stealth and secrecy, so that most often the testimony 'of the victim, coupled with the type of corroboration we have here, is the only evidence available upon which to determine guilt or innocence. The fact that there are difficulties involved should not prevent the pro cesses of justice from functioning." State v. Smith, 16 Utah 2d 374 , 401 P.2d 445, 447 (1965).”
7 later decisions quote this exact passage“* * * What is essential is that it appear that the child has sufficient intelligence and maturity that she is able to understand the questions put to her; that she has some knowledge of the subject under inquiry and the facts involved therein; that she is able to remember what happened; and that she has a sense of moral duty to tell the truth. * * *”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.