26 Md. App. 556 - Moore v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

38 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 38 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““* * * the experience that, under certain external circumstances of physical shock, a stress of nervous excitement may be produced which stills the reflective faculties and removes their control, so that the utterance which then occurs is a spontaneous and sincere response to the actual sensations and perceptions already produced by the external shock. Since this utterance is made under the immediate and uncontrolled domination of the senses, and during the brief period when considerations of self-interest could not have been brought fully to bear by reasoned reflection, the utterance may be taken as particularly trustworthy (or, at least, as lacking the usual grounds of untrustworthiness), and thus as expressing the real tenor of the speaker’s belief as to the facts just observed by him; and may therefore be received as testimony to those facts.””

   8 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Hensley v. Rich · 37 Md. App. 695 - Mazur v. Scavone

2. ““We hold, however, that the out-of-court declaration was admissible in evidence upon a well-recognized and long-established exception to the Hearsay Rule—as an excited utterance which is a variety of the broader category known as spontaneous declarations.1 1 In this case, we will not rely upon the undifferentiated phrase res gestae, because that umbrella term covers a wide variety of analytically distinct rationales, including excited utterances; declarations of both present bodily condition and present mental condition (if contemporaneous with the event in issue); declarations of present sense impression (if contemporaneous with the event in issue); either admissions by a party or declarations against interest (again, if contemporaneous with the event in issue); and utterances (or verbal acts) which are themselves operative conduct or utterances which are a part of relevant conduct, which latter categories are, of course, non-hearsay rather than exceptions to the Hearsay Rule. Events do not speak; only people do, and they may speak truthfully for a variety of reasons. In the case of non-hearsay, it doesn’t matter whether they speak truthfully or not. We do not by any means imply that trial courts using the broader term are in error. A right ruling is a right ruling, however undifferentiated the articulation of its rationale. We deem it our function, however, at least to make the effort to be analytically precise.””

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 74 Md. App. 1 - Cassidy v. State · 62 Md. App. 26 - Booth v. State

3. “"Must the declarant be shown to have met the tests of competency for a witness? In general, it seems not. The declarant is not usually before the court to be examined as to his competency, and the declarations furthermore come in only under spe cial safeguards — here, the requirement of excited utterance — which diminish the need for further caution. Consequently, it is held that evidence of spontaneous declarations of infants is admissible despite the incompetency of the child as a witness. Such is also the rule in the case of an insane declarant, or one incompetent by reason of conviction of a felony, or where the declaration was made by the husband or wife of the accused in a criminal case.” [Original emphasis.]”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 48 Md. App. 370 - Turner v. State · 63 Md. App. 485 - Johnson v. State