Booze v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

19 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 19 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Under the peculiar circumstances of the case at bar, we see a violation of the due process of law to which the appellant was entitled by the arbitrary and capricious action of the court clerk. We do not establish any ironclad ritual to govern the calling of prospective jurors. We simply hold, under the facts of this case, that where the rules have been agreed upon, either explicitly or implicitly through settled usage, a defendant is entitled to rely upon those rules, unless good cause necessitates some departure therefrom. Although the peremptory challenge, to be sure, only entitles a defendant to reject jurors and not to select others, there is at least some element of indirect selection inexorably at work in the very process of elimination. The right to reject need not be exercised in the dark, but is, under circumstances such as those here available, a right of informed and comparative rejection. When the appellant determined to spend his last three peremptories to challenge the first three of the next four persons whom he rightfully expected to be called, he was deciding that he liked the first three less than he liked the fourth. Had he known that he was comparing the three persons challenged with some other fourth person further down the list, he might well have preferred one, or more, of the rejected threesome to the unanticipated fourth. He was thus affirmatively misled in his three decisions to reject. We hold that the arbitrary and unexplained action of the clerk i”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 183 Md. App. 188 - Adams v. State

2. “communicate clearly this Court’s intent that, to the extent possible, the parties should have before them the entire pool of prospective jurors before being required to exercise any of their peremptory challenges. That intent is not, in any sense, inconsistent with the basic notion that the function of peremptory challenges is to reject rather than to select jurors. It simply manifests the belief that the parties should have the right to exercise their rejections intelligently and strategically, and that they can better do that if they have the full panel of prospective jurors before them. This is not necessarily a matter of due process. By adopting Rule 4-312(g), we have made that intent a mandate of State judicial policy, and, in the absence of a waiver or other compelling circumstance, we insist that it be followed. In this case, it was not followed, and there was neither a waiver nor any justification for the deviation.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 183 Md. App. 188 - Adams v. State

3. “(g) Designation of List of Qualified Jurors.—Before the exercise of peremptory challenges, the court shall designate from the jury list those jurors who have qualified after examination. The number designated shall be sufficient to provide the number of jurors and alternates to be sworn after allowing for the exercise of peremptory challenges pursuant to Rule 4-313. The court shall at the same time prescribe the order to be followed in selecting the jurors and alternate jurors from the list.”

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