Terry v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

26 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 26 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “First, there must be an error or defect-some sort of deviation from a legal rule-that has not been intentionally relinquished or abandoned, i.e., affirmatively waived, by the appellant. Second, the legal error must be clear or obvious, rather than subject to reasonable dispute. Third, the error must have affected the appellant's substantial rights, which in the ordinary case means he must demonstrate that it affected the outcome of the [trial] court proceedings. Fourth and finally, if the above three prongs are satisfied, the appellate court has the discretion to remedy the error-discretion which ought to be exercised only if the error seriously affects the fairness, integrity or public reputation of judicial proceedings.”

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

2. “In the case of a review for 'plain error,' it is not sufficient to find actual legal error, 'as the jury instruction in question must have an obvious defect rather than a merely arguable defect.'”

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

3. “We review for plain error an alleged jury-instruction error if the error is properly enumerated and argued on appeal.”

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