27 Md. App. 326 - Samson v. State’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. “"' ... Maryland’s constitutional provision making the jury in criminal cases 'the Judges of Law’ does not mean precisely what it seems to say.’ The conception is not without limitation including exceptions added by statute and others carved out by judicial construction. Giles v. State, 229 Md. 370, 382-386 . As early as 1858 it was held that juries had no right to pass upon• the constitutionality of a statute and that it was proper for the trial court to prohibit counsel from arguing that question before the jury. Franklin v. State, 12 Md. 236 . In Slymer v. State, 62 Md. 237 , 241 the Court of Appeals stated that not only was it a court function to 'pronounce on the sufficiency or insufficiency of the evidence to establish the bringing of the law into operation, it is evident, that whether the law has operative existence or not is a preliminary question for the Court, and the evidence offered is really evidence to the Court on which it pronounces and not the jury. If it were otherwise ... we might have the anomalous state of things of one jury finding the law operative and the traverser guilty; and another jury finding the law had not been adopted, and for that reason acquitting the accused. Reason and necessity alike require stability in the law.’ It is but a short step to reason that that which is not within the aegis of the jury is not subject to argument before them.” Samson v. State, 27 Md. App. 326, 336 (1975) (emphasis added).”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 45 Md. App. 549 - Neal v. State

2. “Judges, lawyers and laymen alike are all presumed to know the law regardless of conscious knowledge or lack thereof, and are presumed to intend the necessary and legitimate consequences of their actions in its light. Grumbine v. State, 60 Md. 355, 356 (1883). Without that presumption one could escape the consequence of the law merely by denying prior knowledge of its existence and one’s ignorance would become paramount to the law. Cf. Hopkins v. State, 193 Md. 489, 498-499 [, 69 A.2d 456 ] (1949), supra. [“Ignorantia juris, quod quisque tenetur scire, neminem excusat.”] “[I]gnorance of the law, which every man is bound to know, excuses no man, is as well a maxim of our own law, as it was of the Romans.” 4 Cooley, Blackstone, Sec. 27 at 1233. That maxim applies equally to state and federal law, to both of which we are subjected. 9”

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

3. “"Any new substance which is designated as controlled under federal law shall be similarly controlled under this subheading unless the Department objects to such inclusion or rescheduling. In such case the Department shall cause to be published and made public the reasons for such objection and shall afford all interested parties an opportunity to be heard. At the conclusion of such hearing, the Department shall publish and make public its decision, which shall be final. An appeal from a designation made pursuant to this section shall not stay the effect of such designation.” (Emphasis supplied.)”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 55 Md. App. 150 - State v. Ciccarelli