Johnson v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

6 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 6 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[T]he jury instruction at issue does not constitute an unconstitutional burden shift to the defendant that requires him to provide a reasonable explanation for possession of the [car and purse]. The trial court’s charge was a permissive instruction that allowed the jury to make the inference as opposed to a mandatory one that required they do so. See Wallace v. Higgs, 262 Ga. 437 ( 421 SE2d 69 ) (1992). The jury instruction on the recent possession of stolen goods “in no manner absolves the State from its burden of proof.” Thomas v. State, 274 Ga. 156 (9) ( 549 SE2d 359 ) (2001). An instruction of this nature does not have the effect of shifting the burden to the defendant to affirmatively prove his innocence; it merely prohibits the jury from making the inference if the defendant provides a satisfactory explanation.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Brown v. State