Collins v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

21 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 21 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “"... The rule is clear against inflammatory and abusive argument — the problem is applying the rule to the particular facts at hand. The history of the legal profession is clear also in its love of florid arguments and dramatic perorations. The line between the inflammatory and the dramatic is not clear..."”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Darden v. State · 505 So. 2d 611 - Rosso v. State

2. “"In a separate category is the unfinished question: `I ask you, gentlemen, those of you who have daughters, if one of your daughters was violated —.' Because objection was made and sustained at this point, neither the jury nor this Court can know what was going to be added. Any attempt to conclude this question would be mere speculation on their part and ours. So here, the inquiry must be not whether the question was improper, but whether the direction of the jurors' thoughts to their own daughters was fatal error despite the exclusionary ruling." (Italics supplied.)”

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

3. “"We do not recede from any of our prior pronouncements upon the duty of prosecutors to stay within the realm of proper argument. And needless to say, if the question here had been completed `in an improper manner,' we would, by definition, declare the question `improper' and reverse. This, however, is not the case."”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 194 So. 2d 612 - Grant v. State