State v. Roberts’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 20 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The General Assembly granted jurisdiction of misdemeanors to municipal courts in Ark. Code Ann. § 16-17-704 (Repl. 1994). As to the issue of jury trials in municipal courts, Ark. Code Ann. § 16-17-703 (Repl. 1994) states: There shall be no jury trials in municipal court. In order that the right of trial by jury remains inviolate, all appeals from judgment in municipal court shall be de novo to circuit court. There is thus no entitlement to a jury trial in a municipal court, but the right remains inviolate when an appeal is pursued to a circuit court where the case is tried de novo. See Edwards v. City of Conway, 300 Ark. 135 , 777 S.W.2d 583 (1989). When a conviction is appealed from a municipal court to a circuit court, the case is tried de novo, and the appellant is entitled to a trial by jury. See Weaver v. State, 296 Ark. 152 , 752 S.W.2d 750 (1988); Johnston v. City of Pine Bluff, 258 Ark. 346 , 525 S.W.2d 76 (1975). The purpose of the trial de novo is to conduct a trial as though there had been no trial in the lower court. Bussey v. State, 315 Ark. 292 , 867 S.W.2d 433 (1993).”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Ayala v. State · Swint v. State

2. “No matter how laudable his intention, it was simply unnecessary for the Circuit Court to institute a means contrary to the present statutory scheme to protect the right to jury trial. The underpinnings of the order were that the proceeding which must occur in a municipal court prior to that in a circuit court where a jury is available places an impermissible burden on the right to a jury trial and that a criminal defendant has the right to decide whether to be tried by a jury. We agree with the holding in Ludwig v. Massachusetts, supra, that the burden placed upon the right by requiring a proceeding in a municipal court is not impermissible. We have no quarrel with the conclusion that a criminal defendant has a right to be tried by a jury, but as we and the General Assembly have made clear, the inviolability of that right is sufficiently protected by the right to take the case to a circuit court. Persons summoned before a municipal court have an adequate remedy to protect their statutory and constitutional right to a trial by jury, thus mandamus does not lie.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Velek v. State of Arkansas