Sikes v. State’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 18 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “When an officer stops a vehicle for a traffic violation, he may briefly detain the vehicle and its occupants while he examines the vehicle registration and the driver’s license. Delaware v. Prouse, 440 U.S. 648 , 99 S.Ct. 1391 , 59 L.Ed.2d 660 (1979) (emphasis added). Although Sikes does not challenge the officers’ initial stop of the automobile, Sikes claims that the officers improperly seized him to run a warrant check with no reasonable cause. An individual is “seized” when an officer restrains his freedom, even if the detention is brief and falls short of arrest. The scope and duration of seizure must be strictly tied to and justified by the circumstances which rendered its initiation proper. Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 , 88 S.Ct. 1868 , 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968). In South Carolina, we have gone a little further by holding that an officer may stop a car and briefly detain the occupants if he has a reasonable suspicion that the occupants are involved in criminal activity. Knight v. State, 284 S.C. 138 , 325 S.E.2d 535 (1985) (emphasis added). Here the officers’ “reasonable suspicion” was that the car was either stolen or that the driver was uninsured. Under Knight, supra, neither of these reasons gave the officers the right to seize or question the car’s passenger. Moreover, even assuming arguendo that this stop was reasonable, certainly a twenty minute detention while the officers “went fishing” for evidence of some crime was not brief within the definition announced in Prouse,”

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

2. “Appellant argues the seizure of the hatchet was illegal because the officer lacked probable cause for stopping the vehicle. However, a police officer may stop an automobile and briefly detain its occupants, even without probable cause to arrest, if he has a reasonable suspicion that the occupants are involved in criminal activity.”

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

3. “the unlawfully-obtained evidence was the only evidence of [the defendant's] possession of cocaine”

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