Williams v. State’s Empirical Analysis
1988
Citation profile
18 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 22 later decisions — most recently March 2005
18 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on Williams v. State · Vasquez v. State · Adams v. State · Williams v. State · Floyd v. State
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 22 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Admittedly the prosecutor’s statements were improper. However, we think the effect of the action taken by the trial court was to inform the jury that the argument presented by the prosecutor was not in evidence and could not be considered by them. Obviously, the best course of action would have been for the trial court to immediately reprimand the prosecutor in front of the jury. (Emphasis added). ____ There is no indication in the present case that the verdict was attributed to or was in any manner influenced by the prosecutor’s improper argument. The appellant was convicted of first degree murder and received a sentence of forty years. He could have been given a life sentence. In spite of the improper argument by the prosecutor we do not find prejudice has resulted under the facts of this case____ ____ A prosecutor who conducts himself in such a manner runs the risk of costing the state and county a retrial or even the possibility of allowing a guilty person to escape punishment. We strongly discourage such conduct on the part of either counsel____ (Emphasis added).”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“We have on numerous occasions dealt with closing arguments of overzealous prosecutors____ [i]n an unanimous opinion we stated: Closing arguments must be confined to questions in issue, the evidence introduced and all reasonable inferences and deductions which can be drawn therefrom____ Whenever trial counsel argues matters that are beyond the record and states facts or makes assertions not supported by any evidence that are prejudicial to the opposite party, there is clearly error____ (Emphasis added). When objection is made, the presiding judge should appropriately reprimand counsel and instruct the jury to not consider the statement, and in short, do everything possible to see that the verdict of the jury is neither produced nor influenced by such argument---The failure to sustain a proper objection to argument of matters not disclosed by the record is serious error, because it gives the appearance that the improper argument has not only the sanction but the endorsement of the Court____ It has even been said that the overruling of a proper objection to a statement amounting to a declaration of law is tantamount to the giving of an instruction to that effect. (Emphasis added).”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.