State v. Bember’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 district · 120 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 124 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Whether or not the trial judge shall question a witness is within his sound discretion ... [and] [i]ts exercise will not be reviewed unless he has acted unreasonably, or, as it is more often expressed, abused his discretion.... The trial judge can question witnesses both on direct and cross-examination.... [I]t may be necessary to do so to clarify testimony as [the judge] has a duty to comprehend what a witness says ... [and] to see that the witness communicates with the jury in an intelligible manner.... While no precise theorem can be laid down, we have held that it is proper for a trial court to question a witness in endeavoring, without harm to the parties, to bring the facts out more clearly and to ascertain the truth ... and [intervene] where the witness is embarrassed, has a language problem or may not understand a question.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 180 Conn. App. 624 - State v. Swilling