Sanders v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

16 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 16 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “In the case of State v. Bacon [ 77 Miss. 366 , 27 So. 563 (1900)], hereinbefore cited and discussed, several of the grand jurors were permitted to testify as witnesses on the hearing of the motion to quash the indictment, but whether their testimony was given with or without objection, and whether it tended to uphold rather than impeach the indictment, does not appear. But this Court held in the more recent case of Lewis v. State, 132 Miss. 200 , 96 So. 169 , that grand jurors are incompetent to testify for the purpose of impeaching their indictment on a motion to quash. And in the case of State v. Barnett, hereinbefore cited, some of the grand jurors testified not in the impeachment of, but for the purpose of sustaining the indictment, and said that they were not influenced to any extent by the presence of an unauthorized attorney in the grand jury room when they had the case under consideration, and there was no testimony to the contrary. This Court, however, held that the indictment should have been quashed. Since the grand jurors were incompetent as witnesses in the case at bar to testify that the return of the indictment was influenced by the presence of the Circuit Judge in the grand jury room and by his participation in its deliberations to the extent stated by him on the motion to quash, the accused was placed in the attitude of having to make proof of such fact, if it could be made at all, by the trial judge who was passing upon the motion. The occasion should not ar”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 523 So. 2d 302 - Hood v. State

2. “Without [the Grand Jury's] previous action no person can be put to trial for an infamous crime in this state. In other words, those who are guilty of such crimes can be brought to trial only through the diligence of the grand jury in the exercise of its full freedom of action, and they can escape being rendered subject to prosecution only through its dereliction. But its proper function is not only that of returning indictments in proper cases, but also of protecting the citizen against unwarranted accusations—acting in both instances upon its own responsibility, unmoved by public clamor and unawed by power. If the grand jury is to serve its rightful purpose as an institution of the people, safeguarding both the welfare of the public and the rights of the citizen, its deliberations must remain unhampered either by the presence or influence of those in positions of high authority and all others who have no duties to perform in connection with its secret inquests.”

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

3. “if the door of the grand jury room is open to righteous outside influences, this would be an entering wedge for the admission of corrupt outside influences. If the law and order league is permitted to enter, then sooner or later the league against law and order will find its way in... . There is only one safe, sound rule, and that is to close the door of the grand jury room tight against all outside influences.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 523 So. 2d 302 - Hood v. State