State v. Cott’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

45 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 45 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “(1) The over-strong tendency to believe the defendant guilty of the charge merely because he is a likely person to do such acts; (2) The tendency to condemn, not because he is believed guilty of the present charge, but because he has escaped unpunished for other offences; ... (3) The injustice of attacking one necessarily unprepared to demonstrate that the attacking evidence is fabricated....”

   4 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Sullivan · Origer v. State

2. ““(1) motive, (2) intent, (3) absence of mistake -or accident, (4) a common scheme or system of criminal activity embracing the commission of two or more crimes so related that proof of one tends to prove the other, (5) identity of the person charged with the commission of a crime.””

   4 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Lawless · State v. Castaneda

3. “Rather, we hold the testimony was relevant here to establish the identity of the defendant as the perpetrator of the offense. Identity of the assailant was apparently the principal issue at trial. Although the prosecutrix was able to assist in the completion of a composite drawing of a bearded assailant which bears some resemblance to defendant, picked defendant’s photograph from an array and also picked defendant in a line-up, she also incorrectly described defendant as having orange hair and facial hair. Furthermore, she stated that he was wearing blue jeans on the day of the incident when in fact it appears he had been wearing blue-and-white striped bib overalls. Also, defendant presented alibi testimony which accounted for his whereabouts during most of the time span within which the incident allegedly occurred. Testimony regarding the Ames incidents tended to prove the identity of defendant as the same person who committed both crimes because of the similarity of the acts involved and the method by which they were accomplished. In both the Ames and Des Moines incidents, the man removed his clothing and induced the little girl to touch his genitals. Also, he either removed or had the girl remove her pants and then touched the girl’s pubic area. Both girls were given small amounts of money and instructed to tell their families that they had found it. Moreover, the victim of the Ames incidents also identified defendant as the assailant.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Walsh · State v. Newman