State v. McKissick’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

50 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 50 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““CouRT: All right, gentlemen of the jury, it is your duty to reach a decision if you can do so without doing violence to your conscience. This case is an important one both to the State and to the defendant. Some jury has to pass upon it. It is your duty to consider the evidence and not to decline to agree with other on account of stubbornness, to decline to agree if one can do so without doing violence to his conscience is not necessarily a mark of great intelligence or high citizenship; it is your duty to agree if you can reason with each other as intelligent men and reconcile your differences. The court, however, is not attempting to force you to agree. If you can in good conscience, without doing violence to your own conscience, compromise your differences, reconcile them, it is your duty to do so but only if you can do that without compromising your own conscience. I remind you that some jury somewhere, some time will have to pass upon this case. It is not likely that we will find any better jury than we have now. I will let you resume your deliberations for the time being.””

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Gresham · 2 N.C. App. 204 - State v. Fuller

2. ““The instruction in the Barnes case, the instruction in the Green case, and the instruction in. the case of In Re Will of Hall were each to the effect that no juror shordd surrender his conscientious conviction in order to agree on a verdict. The challenged instruction in the instant case begins in the second sentence with the words, ‘You must consider this case until we have exhausted every possibility of an agreement,’ and fails to instruct the jury that no one of them should surrender his conscientious convictions or his free will and judgment in order to agree upon a verdict. The challenged instruction might reasonably be construed by a minority of the jury as coercive, suggesting to them that they should surrender their well-founded convictions conscientiously held or their own free will and judgment in deference to the views of the majority, and concur in what really is a majority, rather than a unanimous, verdict.” (emphasis added)”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 4 N.C. App. 56 - In Re the Condemnation of Property of Henderson

3. ““Court: Members of the jury, you may reconcile any differences you have under the evidence and render a verdict. The Court will express the hope that you will do so. If this jury fails to render a verdict, it would then become necessary to call upon another jury to pass upon the cases. I have no reason to believe that another would have more intelligence and be better qualified than this jury to make the decisions. Even so, the Court would have the jury bear in mind that each person is a keeper of his own conscience and the Court would not have a juror to do violence to his own conscience nor to render verdict. However, we have until Friday night for you to work on this ease and no reason to hurry the matter. So take your time and deliberate further, please. Please retire.” (Emphasis added.)”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. State v. Jones