Steele v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 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 2 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “This being the first interpretation of Rule 609(c) as applied to a situation where a witness’s prior record has been expunged, we choose to give the rule its plain and ordinary meaning. Therefore, we hold that the trial court correctly ruled that the expungement of the prior proceedings, whether it was a conviction or not, rendered such record inadmissible. The trial court found that [the witness] had been rehabilitated prior to the entry of the order of expungement. Rule 609(c) requires the court to refuse to allow a conviction which has been expunged, to be used for testing the credibility of a witness.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Regions Bank Trust Department

2. “Evidence of a conviction is not admissible under this rule if (1) the conviction has been the subject of a pardon, annulment, certificate of rehabilitation, or other equivalent procedure based on a finding of the rehabilitation of the person convicted, and that person has not been convicted of a subsequent crime which was punishable by death or imprisonment in excess of one [1] year, or (2) the conviction has been the subject of a pardon, annulment, or other equivalent procedure based on a finding of innocence.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Regions Bank Trust Department