State v. Sokolowski’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

34 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 34 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “A prior act or crime is sufficiently similar to warrant admissibility under Rule 404(b) if there are “some unusual facts present in both crimes or particularly similar acts which would indicate that the same person committed both crimes.” It is not necessary that the similarities between the two situations “rise to the level of the unique and bizarre.” However, the similarities must tend to support a reasonable inference that the same person committed both the earlier and later acts.”

   4 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 148 N.C. App. 310 - State v. Wilkerson · 179 N.C. App. 437 - State v. Peterson

2. ““strands in a rope, where no one of them may be sufficient in itself, but all together may be strong enough to prove the guilt of the defendant beyond reasonable doubt. . . . [E]very individual circumstance must in itself at least tend to prove the defendant’s guilt before it can be admitted as evidence. No possible accumulation of irrelevant facts could ever satisfy the minds of the [jurors] beyond a reasonable doubt.””

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

3. “no one of them may be sufficient in itself, but all together may be strong enough to prove the guilt of the defendant beyond reasonable doubt”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 265 N.C. App. 555 - State v. Parks