State v. Cope’s Empirical Analysis
1983
Citation profile
17 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 17 later decisions — most recently July 2011
17 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on Beal v. Franklin · State v. Wilkerson · State v. Wrenn · State v. Potter · State v. Ward
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 17 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“(1) The state should move “to be allowed to impeach its own witness by proof of his prior inconsistent statements”; (2) the motion should be made as soon as the prosecutor is surprised; (3) the motion “is addressed to the sound discretion of the trial court”; (4) the preliminary questions of whether the prosecutor is surprised and misled as to the witness’s expected testimony on a material fact is to be determined in a voir dire hearing in the absence of the jury; and (5) “[i]f the trial judge finds that the State should be allowed to offer prior inconsistent statements, his findings should also specify the extent to which such statements may be offered.” 287 N.C. at 512-13 , 215 S.E. 2d at 145 . The Court in Pope further noted that prior inconsistent statements are not substantive evidence and are only admitted to show the prosecutor was surprised by the witness’s testimony at trial and to explain why the witness was called by the state. Id. at 514 , 215 S.E. 2d at 146 . Finally, in keeping with the limited purpose for which the prior inconsistent statements may be offered, Pope said only statements “made ... to the State’s attorney or to some person whom he specifically instructed to communicate the statement to the attorney” or statements taken in writing by official investigators and furnished to the state’s attorney may be used to impeach the witness. Id. at 513 , 215 S.E. 2d at 145 .”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. State v. McDonald
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.