Johnson v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate · 62 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 66 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “"when an appellant, in a criminal case, establishes error, unless a reviewing court, upon its own independent review of the record, is able to declare a belief, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the error in no way influenced the verdict, such error cannot be deemed `harmless' and a reversal is mandated."”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Stewart v. State · Spain v. State

2. “As we said yesterday, Ms. DeGren comes here presumed to be innocent, not guilty, of these charges. That presumption remains with her throughout every stage of the trial and is not overcome unless you are convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that she is guilty of something. The State has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. That burden remains with the Government throughout the trial. The defendant is not required to prove her innocence. She isn’t required to prove her innocence at all. Obviously you are expected to consider this case and decide it fairly and impartially and to perform that duty without bias or prejudice towards any party. You should not be swayed by sympathy, prejudice or your perception of public opinion. As we have been saying, the case has to be decided solely upon the evidence presented in the courtroom. Evidence consists of testimony that you have heard from people who have taken an oath and sat there and have been questioned— The questions and the objections stated by counsel that you heard as such are not evidence either. It is the function of the lawyers, obviously, to ask questions and to raise objections in their effort to focus the evidence in the direction that they think it should go. Any comments I made here, as I have said, are not evidence. Any comments the lawyers are about to make to you are not evidence. What the lawyers have said to you already is not evidence.... You alone are the judge of whether witness testimony should”

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

3. “Let me just tell you ladies and gentlemen a couple of things that bothered me about what my learned friend has said. She said that when you go back there and come up with a verdict you can’t change your minds, make sure, make sure. She wants to elevate reasonable doubt more than it is in your minds. Well, let me tell you ladies and gentlemen, if your verdict is not guilty you can’t change it. If it is guilty it is reviewed by the appellate— And the rights of the appeal go all the way up to the Supreme Court. So what she is telling you, saying that to you, she is not being quite honest to you. She wants to elevate that reasonable doubt in your mind which is what her job is to make it harder for you all to find him guilty.”

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