Brown v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 district · 17 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 21 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The first statement offered by the State — that given by Bruce at the time of the entry of his guilty plea — was collateral to his admission of guilt and carries with it precious little intrinsic or extrinsic indicia of reliability ... This is not a situation where the admission of guilt by Bruce, in and of itself, furnishes any evidence against Brown. Rather, this is a case of a criminal, who has already admitted his guilt, being pressed by the judge who will soon sentence him, and by the prosecutor who may make a recommendation concerning his sentence, to disclose information that may lead to a subsequent criminal prosecution. Under these circumstances, Bruce may well have been motivated by the desire to curry favor with the authorities, and by the desire to reduce his own culpability — motives that we have identified as frequently present in these situations, and which combine to make ‘inevitably suspect’ statements of this type.”

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

2. ““The proposition that hearsay evidence may be sufficiently reliable to justify its admission where necessary to further the cause of justice, even though it does not fall within a recognized exception is not new. [citing Merriam and Dallas County.] This general principle has now achieved recognition in the Federal Rules of Evidence. See Fed.R.Evid. 803(24) and 804(b)(5). The rule that reasonably reliable hearsay evidence may be admitted in probation revocation hearings is a logical extension of that proposition.””

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

3. “... [T]hat where the proffered hearsay goes to the very heart of the principal issue of whether a violation occurred — as opposed to merely addressing a peripheral, albeit necessary, element of proof— the indicia of reliability must be substantial to justify its admission when it cannot qualify under any of the firmly established exceptions to the hearsay rule.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Durling v. Chairman, Massachusetts Parole Board