State v. Mullins’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate · 70 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 72 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Whether a confession is involuntary because it was coerced rests upon factual determinations regarding the circumstances surrounding the defendant's confession. . . . Although the ultimate question of voluntariness is one of law over which our review is plenary, the factual findings underpinning that determination will not be overturned unless they are clearly erroneous. . . . As in other cases in which the factual findings implicate a defendant's constitutional rights and the credibility of witnesses is not the primary issue, we will, however, undertake a scrupulous examination of the record to ensure that the findings are supported by substantial evidence.”

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

2. “[W]hether a defendant was subjected to interrogation ... involves a similar two step inquiry .... Because this framework is analogous to the determination of whether a defendant is in custody, the ultimate determination, therefore, of whether a defendant already in custody has been subjected to interrogation also presents a mixed question of law and fact over which our review is plenary, tempered by our scrupulous examination of the record to ascertain whether the findings are supported by substantial evidence.”

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

3. “Interrogation, as conceptualized in the Miranda opinion, must reflect a measure of compulsion above and beyond that inherent in custody itself.”

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