State v. McDowell’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

11 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 11 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “a defendant's indigency must be taken into account. As for the relevance of the defendant's indigency upon the Eighth Amendment bail question, Stack v. Boyle [, 342 U.S. 1 , 72 S.Ct. 1 , 96 L.Ed. 3 (1951)] . . . is itself instructive, for it expressly [indicates] that the financial ability of the defendant to give bail is one of the CT Page 873 factors which must be taken into consideration. This is certainly sensible, for an impecunious person who pledges a small amount of collateral constituting all or almost all of his property is likely to have a stake at least as great as that of a wealthy person who pledges a large amount constituting a modest part of his property. . . . To impose a financial requirement which is beyond [a defendant's] means is unreasonable and, of course, makes the determination of eligibility [for bail] purposeless.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. State v. Proto, No. Cr 6-477622 (Jan. 19, 2000)

2. “The determination of an appropriate pretrial bond is a matter within the sound discretion of the trial court. . . . An appeal therefrom will be sustained only in the event that it appears that the trial court has exercised its discretion in so unreasonable a manner as to constitute an abuse of discretion.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 106 Conn. App. 323 - State v. Williams