State v. Spencer’s Empirical Analysis
1974
Citation profile
27 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 27 later decisions — most recently September 2012 · most notably 114 Ill. 2d 170 - People v. Johnson (1986), 406 So. 2d 143 - State v. Boyer (1981)
27 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 Lego v. Twomey · State v. DeZeler · United States v. Stifel · State Ex Rel. Trimble v. Hedman · State v. Schifsky
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 27 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““While there seems to be little doubt that neutron activation analysis can accurately detect the presence and amount of certain chemical elements, it is doubtful that it can conclusively establish that those elements were present as the result of firing a weapon.... “However, the presence of these chemicals together in the amounts found on this defendant’s hands could reasonably provide some evidence that defendant had fired a gun....””
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. State v. Williams“We believe that neutron activation analysis is a useful law-enforcement technique and that the increasing use of technology in criminal investigation should not be inhibited but encouraged where consistent with the rights of the accused.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“the defendant held a loaded gun on the [victim], deliberately cocked the weapon, and then fired a bullet into [the victim's] back.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. State v. Vance
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.