State v. Velasco’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

4 district · 178 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 182 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Statutory construction is a question of law and, therefore, our review is plenary.... [O]ur fundamental objective is to ascertain and give effect to the apparent intent of the legislature.... In seeking to discern that intent, we look to the words of the statute itself, to the legislative history and circumstances surrounding its enactment, to the legislative policy it was designed to implement, and to its relationship to existing legislation and common law principles governing the same general subject matter.... "Several additional tenets of statutory construction guide our interpretation of a penal statute.... [C]riminal statutes are not to be read more broadly than their language plainly requires and ambiguities are ordinarily to be resolved in favor of the defendant.... [U]nless a contrary interpretation would frustrate an evident legislative intent, criminal statutes are governed by the fundamental principle that such statutes are strictly construed against the state.”

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

2. “Whether or not the trial judge shall question a witness is within his sound discretion ... [and] [i]ts exercise will not be reviewed unless he has acted unreasonably, or, as it is more often expressed, abused his discretion.... The trial judge can question witnesses both on direct and cross-examination.... [I]t may be necessary to do so to clarify testimony as [the judge] has a duty to comprehend what a witness says ... [and] to see that the witness communicates with the jury in an intelligible manner.... While no precise theorem can be laid down, we have held that it is proper for a trial court to question a witness in endeavoring, without harm to the parties, to bring the facts out more clearly and to ascertain the truth ... and [intervene] where the witness is embarrassed, has a language problem or may not understand a question.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. 180 Conn. App. 624 - State v. Swilling

3. “Statutory construction is a question of law and, therefore, our review is plenary.... [O]ur fundamental objective is to ascertain and give effect to the apparent intent of the legislature.... In seeking to discern that intent, we look to the words of the statute itself, to the legislative history and circumstances surrounding its enactment, to the legislative policy it was designed to implement, and to its relationship to existing legislation and common law principles governing the same general subject matter....”

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