State v. Diaz’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

73 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 74 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[t]estimony by a jailhouse informant about a jailhouse confession is inherently suspect because of the ease with which such testimony can be fabricated, the difficulty in subjecting witnesses who give such testimony to meaningful cross-examination and the great weight that juries tend to give to confession evidence. ... In contrast, when a witness testifies about events surrounding the crime that the witness observed, the testimony can be compared with the testimony of other witnesses about those events, and the ability of the witness to observe and remember the events can be tested.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 175 Conn. App. 22 - State v. Franklin · Commonwealth, Aplt. v. Crispell, D.

2. “a jailhouse informant is a prison inmate who has testified about confessions or inculpatory statements made to him by a fellow inmate " [emphasis added] ). "In Diaz , our Supreme Court declined to interpret its decision in Patterson as [requiring] a special credibility instruction when an incarcerated witness has testified concerning events surrounding the crime that [he] witnessed outside of prison ... reasoning that such an exception would swallow the rule that the trial court generally is not required to give such an instruction for the state's witnesses.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 187 Conn. App. 752 - State v. Jones · 179 Conn. App. 605 - State v. Salmond

3. “jury [is] aware of the [nonjailhouse informant] witness' involvement in the criminal justice system and their expectations that they would receive consideration in exchange for their testimony,”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 187 Conn. App. 752 - State v. Jones · 179 Conn. App. 605 - State v. Salmond