Outlaw v. State’s Empirical Analysis
1949
Citation profile
31 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 31 later decisions — most recently January 1996 · most notably Simpson v. State (1986), Williams v. State (1996)
31 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on Carter v. State · State v. McMullins · Bryant v. State · Finklea v. State
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 31 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“... Either spouse is a competent witness and may be compelled to testify against the other in any criminal prosecution of either husband or wife for a criminal act against any child, for contributing to the neglect or delinquency of a child, or desertion or non-support of children under the age of sixteen years, or abandonment of children. But in all other instances where either of them is a party litigant the other shall not be competent as a witness and shall not be required to answer interrogatories or to make discovery of any matters involved in any such other instances without the consent of both. (Emphasis added).”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage“From these authorities it is seen that this court has repeatedly held that it is improper for the prosecution to call the defendant’s wife and offer her as a witness against him. "We seriously doubt that there is a prosecuting attorney in this state who does not know this to be the law. A violation of this salutary rule by a prosecuting attorney must be interpreted as motivated by a desire to prejudice the jury against a defendant and tip the scales against him in a close case such as is here presented, with the hope that this court will say on appeal, as it did say in some of the foregoing authorities, that the defendant has been proven guilty notwithstanding the error, and that consequently the error will be held harmless. This is a case in which we cannot confidently so assert. Since every man is entitled to a fair and impartial trial by a jury uninfluenced by anything except competent evidence, and since all reasonable doubts should be resolved in favor of the defendant, the judgment of conviction will be reversed and the cause remanded for another trial.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Wallace v. State“"The district attorney well knew that the wife was not a competent witness for he prefaced his questions to appellant with the statement, `You know that in a case like this your wife can't come in as a witness', to which appellant's counsel objected, but the district attorney immediately asked appellant `Would you have any objection to your wife being brought in here to testify', to which objection was again made, and the trial court compelled appellant to answer the question. This was further than the court went in any of the cases hereinafter mentioned." 208 Miss. at 18 , 43 So.2d at 663-664 .”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.