Wilson v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

40 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 40 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “In Texas, the law of standing has been developed mainly in the courts of civil jurisdiction. There, it is a fundamental rule of law that only the person whose primary legal right has been breached may seek redress for an injury. Consequently, standing consists of some interest peculiar to the person individually and not as a member of the general public. For a person to maintain a court action, [therefore], he must show that he has a justiciable interest in the subject matter in litigation, either in his own right or in a representative capacity. One who has not suffered an invasion of a legal right does not have standing to bring suit. Kindred rules have also appeared in the criminal context, usually as a result of search-and-seizure litigation. Thus, when the predecessor of article 38.23(a) was first enacted in 1925, contentions identical to those presented here were urged soon after. And, in a series of early opinions, this court rejected them all, holding that the right to complain because of an illegal search and seizure is a privilege personal to the wronged or injured party, and is not available to anyone else. [[Image here]] As in the past, we do not interpret the sweeping language of article 38.23(a) to confer automatic third party standing upon all persons accused of crimes, such that they may complain about the receipt of evidence which was obtained by violation of the rights of others, no matter how remote in interest from themselves. Although article 38.23 might ”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. Windom v. State

2. “The purpose of section 37.09 is to maintain the honesty, integrity, and reliability of the justice system and prohibiting anyone — including members of the government — from creating, destroying, forging, altering, or otherwise tampering with evidence that may be used in an official investigation or judicial proceeding. ... Public scandals involving police and “throw down” guns, pool-chalk wrapped to look like cocaine used as evidence to prosecute innocent people, false offense reports, and the like are not unheard of in this state. Neither police nor private individuals have a license to fabricate documents or other evidence and then use them to affect a criminal investigation or proceeding.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Haywood v. State

3. “[n]o evidence obtained by an officer or other person in violation of any ... laws of the State of Texas, or of the ... laws of the United States of America, shall be admitted in evidence against the accused on the trial of any criminal case.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. Sims, Christian Vernon