State v. White’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. “"Ladies and gentlemen, before we recessed, [the prosecutor] had made some comment in his opening statement about [the defendant] having been called to testify in the [co-defendant's] matter and not having testified, chosen not to do so. "I have ruled that that matter is not relevant in this case. You will not be hearing any evidence about that, and that there are any number of reasons why that may have occurred would have nothing to do with any that is probative of the evidence in this case. So in no way are you to take that into account or in any way to discuss or consider what [the prosecutor] has said in regard to that. It's not evidence in this case. It's not to be taken by you as any evidence of the case or have any place in this case."”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 297 Or. App. 597 - State v. Hunt

2. “Even if jurors try faithfully to obey their instructions, the connection between silence and guilt is often too direct and too natural to be resisted. *** [T]elling them to ignore the defendant's silence is like telling them not to think of a white bear.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 297 Or. App. 597 - State v. Hunt

3. “must do something more than blandly instruct the jury to forget that it has just seen a white bear.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 297 Or. App. 597 - State v. Hunt