State v. Adcock’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 federal appellate · 124 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 129 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[C]ircumstantial evidence is proof of a chain of facts and circumstances indicating the guilt or innocence of a defendant.”

   6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. State v. Cherry · 241 N.C. App. 176 - State v. Reison

2. “after all, the convincing effect of circumstantial evidence on the mind of the jury is measured by the same standard of intensity required of any other evidence — the jury must be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt as to every element of the crime before they find the defendant guilty of it, whether the evidence is wholly circumstantial, only partly so, or entirely what we sometimes refer to as direct. No set formula is required to convey to the jury this fixed principle relating to the degree of proof required for conviction. The instruction adopts the formula most often used and to which we sooner or later all refer — proof beyond a reasonable doubt.”

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

3. ““strands in a rope, where no one of them may be sufficient in itself, but all together may be strong enough to prove the guilt of the defendant beyond reasonable doubt. . . . [E]very individual circumstance must in itself at least tend to prove the defendant’s guilt before it can be admitted as evidence. No possible accumulation of irrelevant facts could ever satisfy the minds of the [jurors] beyond a reasonable doubt.””

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