194 Md. App. 76 - Fleming v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

15 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 15 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The State argues that for strategic reasons defense counsel chose to “transform an adverse ruling that could have been given a limited effect into a general defeat in the hopes of turning it to his advantage at trial or on appeal.” We fail to see, however, how this decision not to accept the instruction constitutes a waiver. It was clear to defense counsel that the proposed instruction could have had the undesirable effect of highlighting the purposes suggested by the trial judge ... It is of course true that the defendant could have agreed to the giving of such an instruction without waiving his objection to the admissibility of the evidence. That does not mean, however, that he necessarily gave up the right to complain of an erroneous ruling by making the tactical decision that he would be harmed rather than helped by a “limiting” instruction. We agree that the evidence was inadmissible, and we hold that the instruction, if given, would not have rendered the error harmless. Under these circumstances, the defendant’s decision to forego the offered instruction does not constitute a waiver of his right to later challenge the admissibility of the evidence.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 217 Md. App. 159 - Hayes v. State

2. “[A] defendant is not required, as a matter of law, to agree to a limiting instruction at the risk of waiving an issue for appellate review. A trial court may, and sometimes should, give a curative instruction on its own. Each case will be reviewed on its own merit, but counsel’s tactical decision to minimize the damage by avoiding emphasis of the statement will not be considered a waiver of the issue.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 228 Md. App. 646 - Walls v. State

3. “The defendant bears the burden of showing that the prejudice arising from the trial court's error demands the declaration of a mistrial. This Court reviews a trial court's decision to decline to grant a mistrial under an abuse of discretion standard.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 237 Md. App. 439 - Bynes v. State