State v. Wade’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

18 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 18 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “An indictment is sufficient if the offense is stated with [enough] certainty and particularity to enable the court to know what judgment to pronounce, and the defendant to know what he is called upon to answer and whether he may plead an acquittal or conviction thereon. The true test of the sufficiency of an indictment is not whether it could be made more definite and certain, but whether it contains the necessary elements of the offense intended to be charged and sufficiently apprises the defendant of what he must be prepared to meet.”

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

2. “[O]ne is to look at the `surrounding circumstances' that existed pre-trial, in order to determine whether a given defendant has been `prejudiced,' i.e., taken by surprise and hence unable to combat the charges against him.”

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

3. “[T]he sufficiency of an indictment must be judged from a practical standpoint, with all of the circumstances of the particular case in mind.”

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