Skaggs v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

28 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 28 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““It seems incontrovertible, therefore, that the Bastardy Act, viewed as a whole, is an attempted authorization of proceedings against the father of a bastard child to enforce the natural obligation he is under to support and provide for his illegitimate offspring, and that the infliction upon him of a punishment for the act of begetting such child, or for failure to comply with any order of the court made in such proceeding as for a criminal offense, is not the purpose of the statute, nor is such its effect; that in such proceedings proof of the guilt of the putative father is not required to be made beyond a reasonable doubt, but may be shown by a mere preponderance of the evidence; that the failure of the defendant to take the stand in his own behalf may be commented upon by the county attorney as in civil actions; that the sufficiency of the complaint is to be determined by the rules applicable to civil causes; that the testimony of the prosecutrix need not be corroborated by other evidence; that no act or omission of the defendant is by such act denounced, defined nor made punishable as a crime, and that the provisions of our Constitution and statutes in favor of persons accused of crime cannot be extended to the case of the defendant in a bastardy proceeding, but that, on the contrary, there are expressly withheld from him the specific constitutional guaranties to an accused person in a criminal case of the right to appeal from a judgment against him, and the right also ”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. State of Arizona v. Nerini

2. ““Our jurisdiction to consider this case on appeal must be based upon tbe authority of some statutory provision. . . . No right of appeal is conferred by the provisions of chapter 1, title 11, part 2 of the Penal Code (sections 1151 to 1163, inclusive), because under the express terms of the Bastardy Law [sections 369-381] prosecution thereunder proceeds upon the complaint originally filed by the woman complainant in the justice court, . . . and the Code . . . provides for an appeal only in criminal cases prosecuted by indictment or information.””

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