State v. Wheeler’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. ““[0]ur standard of review for a trial court’s refusal to grant a mistrial is abuse of discretion.” State v. McGowan, 184 S.W.3d 607, 610 (Mo.App.2006). This is because the trial court has observed the complained of incident that precipitated the request for a mistrial and is in a better position than is the appellate court to determine what prejudicial effect, if any, the incident had on the jury. Id. “We will find that a trial court abused its discretion when its ruling is clearly against the logic of the circumstances before it and when the ruling is so arbitrary as to shock [this Court’s] sense of justice and indicate a lack of careful consideration.” Id. “ ‘Granting a mistrial is a drastic remedy and should be exercised only in extraordinary circumstances where the prejudice to the defendant cannot be removed any other way.’ ” State v. Albanese, 9 S.W.3d 39, 51 (Mo.App.1999) (quoting State v. Wyman, 945 S.W.2d 74, 77 (Mo.App.1997)).”

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