State v. Devlin’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

17 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 18 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““[T]he pertinent question in determining whether publicity is ‘inflammatory’ is not simply whether the media reports contain ‘editorializing,’ whether they wei*e ‘calculated’ to achieve a sinister purpose, or whether they report- ‘factual’ information. Although these are relevant factors, the focus must be on the publicity’s likely effect on the jury pool. Thus, we take this opportunity to clarify the meaning of ‘inflammatory’ publicity for purposes of the pretrial-publicity test. ‘Inflammatory' publicity is publicity which, by its nature, has the tendency to stir up in the community pervasive and strong passions of anger, hatred, indignation, revulsion, and upset such that there are reasonable grounds to believe that jurors chosen from this community could not determine the defendant’s guilt or innocence in a fair and unbiased manner and based solely upon the evidence admitted at trial.””

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. State v. Griego · Lam Luong v. State

2. “Living, as we do, in a society which is continuously inundated with news coverage by the print and broadcast media, it is doubtful that most members of the community will not share some knowledge of, or about, a locally high-profile crime, and the various persons allegedly involved in its commission or in its investigation. Given the inevitable conflict with the media’s constitutional right of free speech, the public’s constitutional right to know, and the accused’s constitutional right to a fair trial, it remains the task of the district court, in such cases, to scrupulously examine the evidence supporting a motion for change of venue to insure that the jurors who will ultimately decide the guilt or innocence of the accused are fair minded and uninfluenced by what they may have seen, heard or read. That conclusion must necessarily be based upon not only the jurors’ responses in voir dire, but also on a careful analysis of the quantity and content of the pretrial publicity. Each case is unique and must be decided on its own merits.”

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