Smith v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

30 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 30 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “It is a fundamental rule of the English common law, embodied in both the state and federal constitutions as a part of the declaration of rights, that in all criminal prosecutions the accused shall have and enjoy the right to be confronted by the witnesses against him. To be confronted by the witnesses against him does not mean merely that they are to be made visible to the accused, so that he shall have the opportunity to see and to hear them, but it imports the constitutional privilege to cross-examine them. The right of cross-examination is a substantive right, and a most valuable and important one. By it the accused can test the interest, prejudice, motive, knowledge, and truthfulness of the witness, and nothing can be substituted for this right of cross-examination.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Miller v. State

2. “It was error to admit the introduction of the report of the hospital and the statements contained therein without the witnesses being present and appellant given the opportunity to cross-examine them. (emphasis added)”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 533 So. 2d 473 - Lanier v. State

3. “the appellate court ruling that these rights were not mere privileges, to be granted or withheld at the discretion of the court, but were substantive rights possessed by the accused which could not be denied to him”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 640 So. 2d 1025 - Jackson v. State