McDonald v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

47 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 47 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The evidence concerning the complainant makes perfect sense without bringing in evidence of the appellant's conduct with the cousin and is clearly divisible in that it involves a different victim, at a different time, after the charged conduct was completed. When the facts of the primary offense can be understood on their own, notice is needed for evidence of uncharged misconduct. In this case, the primary offense was understandable on its own facts. We therefore conclude that the trial court abused its discretion in admitting the uncharged offense without notice because the appellant was entitled to notice upon request under Rule 404(b).”

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

2. “when the record clearly demonstrates that the error is obviously either harmful or harmless ... the time, money, and effort expended on a remand are not worth the candle of comity and continued litigation”). 28 . The State argues that there was no error in the court’s charge for these reasons.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. Vega, Jose Luis Jr.

3. “as to form a single, indivisible criminal transaction, such that in narrating the one, it is impracticable to avoid describing the other.”

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