Smith v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

8 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 8 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Although the affiant’s signature on an affidavit serves as an important memori-alization of the officer’s act of swearing before the magistrate, it is that act of swearing, not the signature itself, that is essential. It is important too, that the law retain some flexibility in the face of technological advances. For example the federal courts and some state courts, now permit telephonic search warrants, and one can foresee the day in which search warrants might be obtained via email or a recorded video conference with a magistrate located many miles away. In a state as large as Texas, such innovations should not be foreclosed by the requirement of a signed affidavit if the officer’s oath can be memorialized by other, equally satisfactory, means. We leave those potential future changes to the Texas Legislature, but we should not stand in the way of the future by declaring that all affidavits, which are properly sworn to but unsigned, are necessarily invalid. That is not to condone carelessness or sloppiness in either police procedure or judicial oversight. Forgetfulness or carelessness in the formalities of-an affidavit may well indicate to either the issuing magistrate or the reviewing court that the officer is forgetful or careless in his factual statements as well. Such forgetfulness may affect the credibility of the officer, but that is a matter for magistrates and trial courts. It is sufficient for today to simply conclude that an affiant’s failure to sign his affidavit ”

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

2. “Telephonic warrants are permitted under the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. Fed.R.Crim.P. 41(d)(3). * * * Several states also allow telephonic warrants, including Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Idaho, Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska, and South Dakota.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. Clay, Sara Kathrine

3. “that the failure to sign the warrant affidavit does not invalidate the warrant if other evidence proves that the affiant personally swore to the truth of the facts in the affidavit before the issuing magistrate.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Clay, Sara Kathrine