State v. Copas’s Empirical Analysis
2000
Citation profile
154 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 154 later decisions — most recently July 2025 · most notably State v. Singh (2002), State v. Stevenson (2004)
154 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on State v. Golding · National Labor Relations Board v. International Longshoremen's Ass'n · Dade County v. Lake Lucerne Civic Ass'n · Pledger v. Medlock · Dade County v. Lake Lucerne Civic Ass'n
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 154 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[P]roof of a material fact by inference from circumstantial evidence need not be so conclusive as to exclude every other hypothesis. It is sufficient if the evidence produces in the mind of the trier a reasonable belief in the probability of the existence of the material fact .... Thus, in determining whether the evidence supports a particular inference, we ask whether that inference is so unreasonable as to be unjustifiable .... In other words, an inference need not be compelled by the evidence; rather, the evidence need only be reasonably susceptible of such an inference. Equally well established is our holding that a jury may draw factual inferences on the basis of already inferred facts.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage“[T]he line between permissible inference and impermissible speculation is not always easy to discern. When we infer, we derive a conclusion from proven facts because such considerations as experience, or history, or science have demonstrated that there is a likely correlation between those facts and the conclusion. If that correlation is sufficiently compelling, the inference is reasonable. But if the correlation between the facts and the conclusion is slight, or if a different conclusion is more closely correlated with the facts than the chosen conclusion, the inference is less reasonable. At some point, the link between the facts and the conclusion becomes so tenuous that we call it speculation. When that point is reached is, frankly, a matter of judgment.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passagee.g. State v. Hester · State v. Buhl“[a]lthough some of the facts considered by the experts ... may not [be] substantively admissible ... the parties [are] not precluded from examining the experts about those facts insofar as they related to the basis for the experts' opinions”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. State v. Walker
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.