State v. Small’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate · 132 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 134 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Evidence which might not otherwise be admissible against a defendant may become admissible to explain or rebut other evidence put in by the defendant himself. State v. Black, 230 N.C. 448, 53 S.E. 2d 443 (1949); see also State v. Patterson, supra, 284 N.C. 190 , 200 S.E. 2d 16 . Here on direct examination defendant testified in such a way as to leave the false impression that the state had refused to accept his offer to submit a polygraph examination. It was proper for the state, therefore on cross-examination to show that, in fact, defendant had been given a polygraph. The state was not, however, required to stop there. Had it done so the jury might have been left with the impression that the state, bearing the burden of proof, did not offer the results of the polygraph because they were unfavorable to it. Both the state and defendant are entitled to a fair trial. Defendant by first injecting the subject of the polygraph into the trial in a manner designed to mislead the jury invited the very cross-examination of which he now complains. His assignments of error directed to this cross-examination are for this additional reason overruled.”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 64 N.C. App. 637 - State v. Brown · 67 N.C. App. 320 - State v. Willis

2. ““An accessory before the fact is one who is absent from the scene when the crime was committed but who participated in the planning or contemplation of the crime in such a way as to ‘counsel, procure, or command’ the principal(s) to commit it. Thus, the primary distinction between a principal in the second degree and an accessory before the fact is that the latter was not actually or constructively present when the crime was in fact committed.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 131 N.C. App. 734 - State v. White · State v. Willis

3. “`the crime of conspiracy is a separate offense from the accomplishment or attempt to accomplish the intended result.'”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. State v. Lowery · State v. Morston