State v. Bennett’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

7 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 7 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[Statements made during closing argument rarely constitute plain error. Without an objection by counsel, a trial court’s options are narrowed to uninvited interference with summation, which may itself constitute error. For the Defendant to carry his burden of showing plain error he must prove that the prosecutor’s statement had a decisive effect on the jury’s verdict. The prosecutor’s statement is decisive when there is a reasonable probability that the verdict would have been different had the error not been committed.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Bescher · State v. Evans