State v. Gentry’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

20 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 22 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “It has been held no error to refuse instructions which state abstract propositions of law, but it is also usually not error to give them. . . . The instruction does not authorize a verdict . It simply attempts to place before the jury the law and the conditions *Page 148 under which an accessory before the fact might be found guilty. There is no reason to think the jury would understand that the defendant could be found guilty unless he actually did participate in the conspiracy and intended to have the crime committed.”

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

2. ““It is claimed that a case was not made out because the principal witnesses against the defendant were Bryan and Barrett whose character and whose confessions of previous falsehoods about the same thoroughly discredited them. It is true they were contradicted by their former statements, sworn and unsworn. It was a matter for the jury to determine at which time they told the truth.””

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