186 Ill. App. 3d 1 - People v. Robinson’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

6 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 6 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “"Defendant's offer of money for the Stephens [ i.e., the victim and her mother] not to appear in court is in return for their nonaid in the prosecution of the sexual assault charge. Nonappearance is a refusal to aid in a prosecution rather than a refusal to testify other than freely, fully and truthfully. Furthermore, the police officer testified that defendant asked Stephen not to prosecute the case. Although the State argues that an offer of money not to appear in court can be equated to an offer of money not to testify freely, fully and truthfully, there is no supporting authority for this equation. If the Stephens had accepted defendant's offer, the State could still have proceeded with the prosecution, subpoenaing them as witnesses whereupon they could then testify freely, fully and truthfully. * * * We agree with the reasoning of the Scribner court that our legislature probably did not intend section 32-4 to be a duplicate of section 32-1, thus making the latter superflous, and further, that criminal statutes must be construed strictly in favor of an accused and nothing is to be taken by intendment or implication against a defendant beyond the literal and obvious meaning of the statute. [Citation.] Accordingly, we conclude that the State did not prove that defendant offered Stephen money to not testify freely, fully and truthfully, but rather offered her money not to aid in the prosecution of the sexual assault charge against him." Id. at 3-4, 133 Ill.Dec. 898 , 541 N.E”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 355 Ill. Dec. 326 - People v. Stuckey

2. “Section 32-4(b) appears to be directed to the prevention of paying a witness to testify other than truthfully and of her own free will.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 355 Ill. Dec. 326 - People v. Stuckey

3. “receiv[ing] or offer[ing] to another any consideration for a promise not to prosecute or aid in the prosection of an offender.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 355 Ill. Dec. 326 - People v. Stuckey