State v. . Shu’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

10 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 10 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““This evidence tends to show that the automobile of Wade Shu, which the defendant habitually drove, was used by those who committed the offense charged in the bill of indictment, but it fails to connect the defendant personally with the crime. The fact of the unexplained use of the car by two unidentified persons affords no more than a suspicion or conjecture that defendant was present or actively participated in the offense. “From S. v. Goodson, 107 N.C. 798 , 12 S.E. 329 , where the evidence was held insufficient to sustain a conviction for murder, we quote the apt language of Chief Justice Merrimon: 'Thus full summary of the incriminating facts, taken in the strongest view of them adverse to the prisoner, - excite suspicion in the just mind that he is guilty, but such view is far from excluding the rational conclusion that some other unknown person may be the guilty party.’ S. v. Montague, 195 N.C. 21 , 141 S.E. 285 ; S. v. Wooded, 211 N.C. 635 , 191 S.E. 334 ; S. v. Madden, 212 N.C. 56 , 192 S.E. 859 ; S. v. English, 214 N.C. 564 , 199 S.E. 920 . ‘It all comes to this, that there must be legal evidence of the fact in issue and not merely such as raises a suspicion or conjecture in regard to it.’ S. v. Prince, 182 N.C. 788 , 108 S.E. 330 ; S. v. Patterson, 78 N.C. 470 ; S. v. Martin, 191 N.C. 404 , 132 S.E. 16 ; S. v. Epps, 214 N.C. 577 , 200 S.E. 20 ; S. v. Norggins, 215 N.C. 220 , 1 S.E. 2d 533 . “The motion for nonsuit should have been allowed, and the judgment is rever”

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