Chambers v. State’s Empirical Analysis
1953
Citation profile
40 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 40 later decisions — most recently September 1977 · most notably Ashton v. Anderson (1972), Baker v. State (1956)
40 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 Deal v. State · Garfield v. State · Bolden v. State · Faulkenberg v. State · Batterson 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 40 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““A reasonable doubt may arise from the evidence as well as from a lack of evidence and may be thus defined: “The rule of law touching reasonable doubt is a fair, reasonable and practical rule for the guidance of practical men, when engaged in the solemn and important duty of assisting in a fair, honest and impartial enforcement of the criminal laws of our State. “It is not, therefore, a rule about which there is anything whimsical or chimerical; it is not a mere possibility of error or mistake that constitutes a reasonable doubt; it does not mean that the jury must be convinced to an absolute and demonstrative certainty. Despite every precaution that may be taken to prevent it, there may be in all matters pertaining to human affairs a mere possibility of chance of error. “If then, you, and each of you, are so convinced by the evidence, or lack of evidence, of whatever class it may be and considering all the facts and circumstances in evidence as a whole, of the guilt of the Defendant that as prudent men and women, you would feel safe to act upon such conviction, in your own dearest and most important, interests, under circumstances when there is no compulsion or coercion upon you to act at all, then you will have arrived at such a degree of certainty as excludes reasonable doubt and authorizes conviction.” 3”
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.