279 So. 2d 596 - McCormick v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

16 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 17 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The next proposition is that the trial court erred in not requiring Laurel Police Officer McDonald to reveal the name of the informant whose information led to the obtaining of the evidence from appellant in the case before us. We hold that law officers have a privilege in this regard. Public interest requires that informants ought to be encouraged to transmit information about crime to law officers. Unless the anonymity of the informant is preserved, the transmission of information pertaining to criminal activities will be discouraged. The resulting effect would be to prevent informers from cooperating with law enforcement officials. Informers would not be useful to the state if state officials and/or prosecuting witnesses should be required to identify informers and thereby expose the informer to possible harm by physical violence or to cause him to run the risk of suits being filed against him for defamation or malicious prosecution. We find no error in this regard and we hold that appellant here was not unconstitutionally deprived of the right to confront a witness against him on the ground that the state did not produce the informant as a witness, or did not identify the informant. McCray v. Illinois, 386 U.S. 300 , 87 S.Ct. 1056 , 18 L.Ed.2d 62 , rehearing denied, 386 U.S. 1042 , 87 S.Ct. 1474 , 18 L.Ed.2d 616 (1967). ( 279 So.2d at 599 ).”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Sims v. State · 293 So. 2d 419 - Ward v. State