291 Ga. App. 795 - Thomas v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

20 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 20 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The equal access rule entitles a defendant to acquittal where the only evidence of possession is the defendant’s ownership or control over the premises, and the defendant can show that others recently had equal access to the premises. It is simply a defense available to the accused to whom a presumption of possession flows. Here, the state was not relying upon [Murphy’s] ownership or control of the residence to prove that the cocaine found [on the electric meter] belonged to him .... Therefore, no presumption of ownership arose and the equal access defense was not available. Thus, the trial court did not err by failing to charge the jury on equal access.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 314 Ga. App. 753 - Murphy v. State