State v. Gregory’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

155 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 155 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “"`Now since the test of substantial evidence is whether a jury reasonably could find the issue thereon, the result must depend in some measure upon the degree of persuasion required. In a criminal case liberty and sometimes life are involved, and there cannot be a conviction except upon a finding of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Necessarily, therefore, it becomes the duty of an appellate court as a matter of law to decide whether the evidence was sufficient to induce a belief of the defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt in the minds of jurors of average reason and intelligence. And in resolving that question the court undoubtedly can pass on the credibility of the testimony to the extent of determining whether it was substantial in the sense above explained. In no other way can the rights of the defendant be protected. It would be an incongruous situation if the court were compelled to let a conviction stand as being supported by evidence warranting a verdict of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, when for any reason made manifest on the record the court is convinced the evidence reasonably could not support a conviction.' This standard is supported in many jurisdictions."”

   7 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Manlove v. State · Easton v. State

2. ““To amount to more than a scintilla, that is, to be substantial, it has been said: ‘The evidence must be of a character sufficiently substantial, in view of all the circumstances of the case, to warrant the [trier of the facts] in finding from it the fact to establish which the evidence was introduced.’ [citing cases] In other words, substantial evidence is evidence from which the triers of the fact reasonably could find the issue in harmony therewith.” 3 Gregory , 96 S.W.2d at 51—52.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Mayes · City of Kansas City v. Oxley

3. “"Whether the evidence in a given case is sufficient to support the finding of the jury, when taken and considered in the fashion in which it must be on demurrer, depends on whether it is sufficient to establish with reasonable certainty in the minds of persons of ordinary and average intelligence the existence of the facts on which the finding is necessarily based."”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Wilson v. Employment Security Commission