State v. Johnson’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

15 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 15 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[b]y comparing the certainty required to convict with the certainty people often require when they make everyday decisions—both important decisions and relatively minor ones the prosecutor trivialized and ultimately failed to convey the gravity of the State's burden and the jury's role in assessing its case against [the defendant].”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Jones · 192 Wash. App. 355 - State Of Washington v. Harun Osman

2. “The jury need not engage in any such thought process. By implying that the jury had to find a reason in order to find [the defendant] not guilty, the prosecutor made it seem as though the jury had to find [the defendant] guilty unless it could come up with a reason not to. Because we begin with a presumption of innocence, this implication that the jury had an initial affirmative duty to convict was improper. Furthermore, this argument implied that [the defendant] was responsible for supplying such a reason to the jury in order to avoid conviction.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 164 Wash. App. 170 - State v. Sakellis

3. “Although the trial court's instructions regarding the presumption of innocence may have minimized the negative impact on the jury, and we assume the jury followed these instructions, a misstatement about the law and the presumption of innocence due a defendant, the "bedrock upon which [our] criminal justice system stands," constitutes great prejudice because it reduces the State's burden and undermines a defendant's due process rights.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 161 Wash. App. 172 - State v. Emery