State v. Barber’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 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 1 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““And, finally, the defendant asks this court to reverse the judgment, and order a new trial, on the ground that the only witness who testified to the particular sale of which the defendant was convicted admitted, upon cross-examination, that he had been furnished the money with which to make the purchases testified to by him; that he at that time expected to be used as a witness against the defendant; that he had been hired to make the complaint, and to become a witness; that he cared nothing about the enforcement of the law; and that, in making the complaint and becoming a witness in this case, he was prompted solely by the money which had been promised him by others. In other words, this court is asked to declare, as a matter of law, that such a witness is unworthy of belief, and that the defendant should not be deprived of his liberty, property, or reputation on the unsupported testimony of a ‘spotter’, although such evidence was uncontradicted, and no attempt was made to impeach the witness, save by showing the motives which prompted him to do what he did towards securing the conviction of the defendant. The trial court was not requested to submit to the jury an instruction embodying that proposition, and we know of no law which would have authorized such an instruction. Neither do we know of any precedent which we might follow, were we to declare the rule to be as argued, even if we entertained the views expressed by counsel. ’ ’”

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