State v. Blunt’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

13 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 13 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Furthermore, Blunt possessed but did not use other evidence that contained the same information about the State Auditor’s decision on the relocation expenses. The C99, which is part of a document from the State Auditor’s Office about the WSI audit, addressed the issue of whether Blunt had an obligation to attempt to recover any of the funds WSI paid to Spencer to reimburse his relocation expenses and said, “Eventually we were told (and convinced) the separation was other than voluntary.” There was evidence, and Blunt’s attorney conceded, Blunt had a copy of the C99 with the handwritten notes prior to trial. The handwritten notes stated, “based on discussions with Attorney General’s Office determination was made the separation was other than voluntary; letter offering position requires 50% pay back if leave voluntarily in first 2 years.” Blunt did not use the information in either version of the C99 during the trial. He claims he did not use the C99 because there was no context to it, he did not know when it was created, and it might “open up a can of worms” and could lead to testimony that he lied to the auditors about Spencer’s resignation. The Wahl memo also contained information that could raise similar issues. The memo included statements that Blunt withheld information about Spencer’s resignation from the auditors and knew his actions were wrong.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of the State of North Dakota v. Feland

2. “Rule 16 is not a constitutional mandate, and a violation of the rule results in a constitutionally unfair trial only when the barriers and safeguards are so relaxed or forgotten the proceeding is more of a spectacle or a trial by ordeal than a disciplined contest. When a trial court’s ruling does not result in an inherently unfair trial, and thus, there is no constitutional issue, the trial court’s decision can be reversed only on a showing, by the defendant, that some substantial rights have been denied. When the defendant cannot demonstrate unfair prejudice, he or she cannot claim a violation of a substantial right. A trial court has broad discretion in admitting evidence which was not disclosed until shortly prior to trial.”

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

3. “abuses its discretion when it acts in an arbitrary, unreasonable, or unconscionable manner, when it misinterprets or misapplies the law, or when its decision is not the product of a rational mental process leading to a reasoned determination.”

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