Jones v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

8 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 8 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “No principle is better settled than that a judge presiding at a trial should manifest the most impartial fairness in the conduct of the case. In recognition of the great influence a trial judge has on a jury, we have stated that the judge should refrain from impatient remarks or unnecessary comments which may tend to result prejudicially to a litigant or which might intend to influence the minds of the jury. A comment by the trial judge expressing his opinion as to facts or evidence presented to the jury is reversible error. ... As the trial judge instructed and the state argued in this case, two of the elements of the crime with which the appellants were charged — promoting obscene materials — require that the jury find that the materials depict in a patently offensive manner sexual conduct, and appeals to the prurient interest of the average person. The trial judge’s comment obviously reflected his own feelings on these legal aspects in the case, and as a consequence, may have influenced the jury’s decision.”

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