Curtis v. State’s Empirical Analysis
1990
Citation profile
50 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 50 later decisions — most recently August 2023 · most notably Lukach v. State (1992), Laughlin v. State (1994)
50 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 Ricarte v. State · Logan v. State · Ellis 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 50 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“A trial court must begin with the presumption that every person is competent to be a witness. A.R.E. Rule 601. The burden of persuasion is upon the party alleging that the potential witness is incompetent. To meet that burden the challenging party must establish the lack of at least one of the following: (1) the ability to understand the obligation of an oath and to comprehend the obligation imposed by it; or (2) an understanding of the consequences of false swearing; or (3) the ability to receive accurate impressions and to retain them, to the extent that the capacity exists to transmit to the factfinder a reasonable statement of what was seen, felt or heard. Jackson v. State, 290 Ark. 375 , 720 S.W.2d 282 (1986). The competency of a witness is a matter lying within the sound discretion of the trial court and, in the absence of clear abuse, we will not reverse on appeal. Hoggard v. State, 277 Ark. 117 , 640 S.W.2d 102 (1982).”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Richardson v. State“While it is true that the victim stated that she did not know what a lie was, nor what happens to a person when they tell a lie, her overall testimony showed her ability to understand the obligation of an oath and the consequences of false swearing. We cannot say that the judge abused his discretion in refusing to declare the witness incompetent.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Richardson v. State
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.