Smith v. State’s Empirical Analysis
1939
Citation profile
57 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 57 later decisions — most recently October 1982 · most notably Watts v. State (1950), Cobbs v. State (1975)
57 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 Peats v. State · Zimmerman v. State · Gears v. State · Dotterer v. State · Haverstick 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 57 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““ ‘Appellants also object to the introduction of certain evidence relating the commission of other and separate crimes from the one charged in the indictment. * * * It has been uniformly held that when the act constituting the crime has been established, then any evidence tending to show motive, intent, or guilty knowledge, if in issue, or any evidence which directly or, as a natural sequence, tends to show the defendant guilty of the crimes charged, is competent although it tends to show him guilty of another and distinct offense. It is the probative value of such evidence to prove the crime charged that makes the evidence admissible and not the fact that it proves or tends to prove the defendant guilty of other crimes. Underhill v. State (1916), 185 Ind. 587 , 114 N.E. 88 ; Gears v. State (1932), 203 Ind. 380 , 180 N.E. 585 ; Zimmerman v. State (1921), 190 Ind. 537 , 130 N.E. 235 . “ ‘Where the circumstances surrounding the offenses other than that charged are of a similar nature, showing use of similar or peculiar instrumentalities in the commission of each offense, or employment of a uniform scheme or method, evidence of such offenses is both relevant and material and is admissible as having probative force to prove the defendant guilty of the particular crime charged. Peats v. State (1938), 213 Ind. 560 , 12 N.E.2d 270 ; Gears v. State, supra; Dotterer v. State (1909), 172 Ind. 357 , 88 N.E. 689 .’” (Quoting from Smith v. State (1939), 215 Ind. 629, at 634-35 , 21 N.E.2d”
6 later decisions quote this exact passagee.g. Watts v. State · Stone v. State““A person lawfully arrested for committing a misdemeanor may be searched without a warrant, and the search may extend to an automobile which he was operating at the time.””
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Arthur v. State
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.