State v. Ellis’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

12 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 14 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““It is said in Greenleaf on Evidence, Sec. 461, ‘It is not enough that the impeaching witness professes merely to state what he has heard “others say”; for those others may be but few. He must be able to state what is generally said, of the person, by those among whom he dwells, or with whom he is chiefly conversant; for it is this only that constitutes his general reputation or character. And, ordinarily, the witness ought himself to come from the neighborhood of the person whose character is in question/ ””

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

2. ““Thus, this witness was permitted to testify that the defendant’s character is bad, based not on his general reputation and character in the community in which he lives, but on what people generally say about him in the Young community where the homicide occurred. The witness, with out any limitation as to the community in which defendant lived or otherwise testified on direct examination that he did not know his general character.””

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