33 N.C. App. 673 - State v. Bost’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

4 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 5 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The only limitation this Court has imposed on the admissibility of fingerprint comparisons to prove the identity of the perpetrator of a crime is a requirement that the testimony be given by an expert in fingerprint identification. We have repeatedly said that the testimony of a fingerprint expert is “competent as evidence tending to show that defendant was present when the crime was committed and that he at least participated in its commission.” The probative force, not the admissibility, of a correspondence of fingerprints found at the crime scene with those of the accused, depends on whether the fingerprints could have been impressed only at the time the crime was perpetrated. Ordinarily, the question of whether the fingerprints could have been impressed only at the time the crime was committed is a question of fact for the jury. It is not a question of law to be determined by the court prior to the admission of fingerprint evidence.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 112 N.C. App. 651 - State v. Futrell