Poole v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

21 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 21 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Poole says that the trial court committed error in that no instruction granted him contained the necessary qualification that in order for his guilt to appear beyond every reasonable doubt the evidence had to exclude every reasonable hypothesis consistent with his innocence. The contention is not well taken for these reasons: First, the trial judge was not requested to grant such an instruction; Second, the guilt or innocence of Poole did not rest entirely upon circumstantial evidence; and, Third, Poole requested and was granted nine instructions by which the jurors were told that in order to convict him the jurors need only believe him guilty beyond every reasonable doubt from the evidence, no instruction containing the qualification that the evidence had to exclude every other reasonable hypothesis. An accused cannot complain of the granting of instructions which are in harmony with those requested by and granted to him. Wilson v. Zook, 69 Miss. 694 , 13 So. 351 ; National Casualty Co. v. Johnson, 219 Miss. 1 , 67 So.2d 865 . (Emphasis supplied).”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 253 So. 2d 806 - Barrett v. State