State v. Gomes’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

17 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 17 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “On August 5,1989, the defendant was convicted of four counts of Lewd & Lascivious Conduct with a Child. The convictions were for conduct at a day care center sometime during the summer of 1985 through the summer of 1986. Prior to trial, the defendant sought the day care center’s attendance records in hopes of developing exculpatory evidence to support his alibi defense and material to impeach the credibility of witnesses. The trial court ruled the records were protected by the privilege against self-incrimination and denied the defendant access to them. On appeal, the Supreme Court held that the trial court’s ruling was erroneous. The Supreme Court reversed the convictions and remanded with instructions to the trial court to examine the day care attendance records. The records cannot be produced or recreated. On remand upon the defendant’s motion the trial court judge recused himself from the case. Under these circumstances, and based upon the record including all evidence developed since remand, is the defendant entitled to a new trial?”

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

2. ““Profile or syndrome evidence is evidence elicited from an expert that a person is a member of a class of persons who share a common physical, emotional, or mental condition. [T]he condition must be one that is generally recognized in the field.” Profile evidence is typically admitted in evidence to assist the jury in understanding “superficially bizarre behavior” of a putative victim, such as a child’s ambivalence about pursuing a sexual abuse complaint, or a child’s recantation of an earlier accusation. In these situations, the expert’s testimony may be useful to dispel misconceptions about the behavior of victims of certain crimes and to show that the conduct of the complaining witness, however seemingly unusual, is consistent with the profile. The function of the testimony is thus primarily rehabilitative, where behaviors such as delay in reporting, recantation, or a continued relationship with the alleged abuser may be mistaken as impeaching the credibility of the child.”

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

3. “(1) the purpose of the recordkeeping is essentially regulatory rather than criminal; (2) the records contain the type of information that the regulated party would ordinarily keep; and (3) the records have assumed “public aspects” that render them at least analogous to public documents.”

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