270 Ga. App. 743 - Lemons v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

14 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 14 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “made no promises or offers to assist the victims with their immigration status and that the victims had not asked for any assistance in exchange for their testimony”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Lucas v. State · 240 Md. App. 156 - Kazadi v. State

2. “Even if we assume that the trial court should have allowed defense counsel to cross-examine the victims about their immigration status and any subjective belief they might have had that testifying for the state might somehow have benefitted them, [Ventura] must still show harm as well as error to prevail on appeal. Under the standards set out by the Supreme Court of Georgia, the "highly probable" test makes affirmance conditional on high probability that error did not affect the judgment. The test compels a judge to go beyond the appearances of the result to an examination of what causal links there may be between error and the judgment. We find it highly probable that the outcome of [Ventura's] trial would not have been different had his counsel been allowed to cross-examine the victims in this area. The evidence against [Ventura] was overwhelming, there had been no discussions between the state and the victims about assistance with their immigration status, and there were no pending immigration proceedings against the victim[ ] [or her parents].”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 346 Ga. App. 309 - VENTURA v. the STATE.

3. “[T]hat some evidence offered by a witness seems contradictory to his own or to some other’s, or incomplete or uncertain, does not automatically discredit the evidence given by that witness for it is the function of the triers of fact to determine to what evidence it gives credence. It is not for us to determine or question how the jury resolved any apparent conflicts or uncertainties in the evidence. Rather, on appeal, we indulge every contingency in favor of the verdict.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 280 Ga. App. 457 - Walker v. State