253 N.C. App. 170 - State v. Malachi’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

5 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 5 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[H]armless error review functions the same way in both federal and state courts: Before a federal constitutional error can be held harmless, the court must be able to declare a belief that it was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.... [A]n error ... [is] harmless if the jury verdict would have been the same absent the error. Under both the federal and state harmless error standards, the government bears the burden of showing that no prejudice resulted from the challenged federal constitutional error. But if the error relates to a right not arising under the United States Constitution, North Carolina harmless error review requires the defendant to bear the burden of showing prejudice. In such cases the defendant must show a reasonable possibility that, had the error in question not been committed, a different result would have been reached at the trial out of which the appeal arises.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. 264 N.C. App. 566 - State v. Steen · 253 N.C. App. 547 - State v. Fowler

2. “errors [arising from trial court instructions allowing the jury to potentially convict a criminal defendant on the basis of a legal theory lacking sufficient evidentiary support that were] not objected to at trial are not plain error per se ,”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 262 N.C. App. 290 - State v. Booker · State v. Malachi

3. “the State's evidence supported an instruction only for actual possession and that the trial court erroneously instructed the jury on constructive possession.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. 264 N.C. App. 566 - State v. Steen · State v. Malachi