247 Ga. App. 412 - State v. Ledford’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

19 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 19 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[i]n Georgia, we recognize three levels of police-citizen encounters: In the first level, police officers may approach citizens, ask for identification, and freely question the citizen without any basis or belief that the citizen is involved in criminal activity, as long as the officers do not detain the citizen or create the impression that the citizen may not leave. This tier provides no Fourth Amendment protection. 3”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 275 Ga. App. 251 - Whiting v. State · 252 Ga. App. 804 - Mijares v. State

2. “[C] ourts do not have available empirical studies dealing with inferences drawn from suspicious behavior, and we cannot reasonably demand scientific certainty from judges or law enforcement officers where none exists. Thus, the determination of reasonable suspicion must be based on commonsense judgments and inferences about human behavior. . . . All of this conduct was by itself lawful, but it also suggested that the individuals were [engaged in criminal activity]. Terry 11 recognized that the officers could detain the individuals to resolve the ambiguity. 12”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 262 Ga. App. 712 - Evans v. State