253 N.J. Super. 598 - State v. Rivera’s Empirical Analysis
1992
Citation profile
10 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 10 later decisions — most recently August 2011
10 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 Griffin v. California · Brewster v. Derwinski · Bullock v. United States · State v. Roth · United States v. Acme Process Equipment Co.
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 10 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“We can, however, reach what appears to us to be a reasonable guideline for trial judges. We determine that if a defendant attempts to inject his unsworn comments into a trial by word, gesture, display of emotion, or other demeanor, such an affirmative act may fairly be the subject of limited comment noting the fact of the behavior and that the comment or demeanor should not be considered by the jury. There may be no reference to defendant's failure to testify under oath. Griffin v. California, 380 U.S. 609, 614 , 85 S.Ct. 1229, 1232 , 14 L.Ed. 2d 106, 109 (1965), reh. denied, 381 U.S. 957 , 85 S.Ct. 1797 , 14 L.Ed. 2d 730 (1965); State v. Schumann, 111 N.J. 470, 477 , 545 A. 2d 168 (1988). The court should charge concerning the fact of defendant's assertions or demeanor, advising the jury that they should not be considered. Where, however, the asserted demeanor is clearly passive, there should be no comment. State v. Johnson, [] 120 N.J. [263,] 295-96, 576 A. 2d 834 [(1990)]. Where the evidence of a display of emotion is active, the trial judge is faced with a difficult decision. Did the defendant cry or laugh voluntarily? Can the action correctly be interpreted as nervousness, sadness, fear, remorse, glee, irony or some private emotion? The better rule in such cases is to prohibit any comment by the State unless the demeanor evidence is clearly injected as an unsworn attempt to influence the jury. A pleading type of crying directed at the jury may be a clear appeal for compa”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“`what does [the officer] have to gain ... from telling you that he bought this cocaine from [the defendant]?'”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
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.