20 Cal. 3d 457 - People v. Thomas’s Empirical Analysis
1978
Citation profile
267 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 274 later decisions — most recently March 2009 · most notably 7 Cal. 4th 380 - People v. Ewoldt (1994), 51 Cal. 3d 294 - People v. Jones (1990)
267 state decisions — followed in 13 states
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on 28 Cal. 2d 306 - People v. Peete · 64 Cal. 2d 159 - Ballard v. Superior Court of San Diego County · People v. Kelley · People v. Haston · 14 Cal. 3d 864 - People v. Rincon-Pineda
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 274 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“whether there is some clear connection between that [prior] offense and the one charged so that it may be logically inferred that if defendant is guilty of one he must be guilty of the other. Or as the matter is sometimes stated, the other offenses ... are sufficiently similar and possess a sufficiently high degree of common features with the act charged where they warrant the inference that if the defendant committed the other acts he committed the act charged.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“[Alleged sex offenses committed with persons other than the prosecuting witness are often unreliable and difficult to prove, nevertheless such evidence is admissible to show a common design or plan where the prior offenses (1) are not too remote in time, (2) are similar to the offense charged, and (3) are committed upon persons similar to the prosecuting witness.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“properly recognized that by reason of the unique circumstances of privacy and seclusion surrounding the commission of most sex offenses the determination of witness credibility plays a central role. Covert thereby found justification for the admission of evidence of defendant's other sex offenses as corroborative of the prosecuting witness' version of the event. We confirm, to an extent at least, the propriety of the Covert thesis, namely, that evidence of similar, nonremote offenses involving similar victims, declared admissible in [ People v. Kelley (1967) 66 Cal.2d 232 [ 57 Cal. Rptr. 363 , 424 P.2d 947 ] and People v. Cramer (1967) 67 Cal.2d 126 ( 60 Cal. Rptr. 230 , 429 P.2d 582 )] to show a common design or plan, may also assist in corroborating the prosecuting witness' version of events. Yet, we sense an inherent danger. Were the theory to be held applicable in all sex offense cases, without regard either to remoteness or similarity, the `corroboration' exception would absorb the general rule of exclusion in its entirety, permitting introduction of all prior sex offenses for purposes of corroborating the prosecuting witness.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.