State v. Mitchell’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

68 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 68 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[i]t is well established that a criminal defendant has a right to remain silent under the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, as incorporated by the Fourteenth Amendment, and under Article I, Section 23 of the North Carolina Constitution. A defendant’s decision to remain silent following his arrest may not be used to infer his guilt, and any comment by the prosecutor on the defendant’s exercise of his right to silence is unconstitutional. “A statement that may be interpreted as commenting on a defendant’s decision [to remain silent] is improper if the jury would naturally and necessarily understand the statement to be a comment on the [exercise of his right to silence.]””

   4 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Ward · 182 N.C. App. 417 - State v. Ezzell

2. ““Courts have included the following factors, among others, in the totality of circumstances which determine whether the initial warnings have become so stale and remote that there is a substantial possibility the individual was unaware of his constitutional rights at the time of the subsequent interrogation: (1) the length of time between the giving of the first warnings and the subsequent interrogation ...; (2) whether the warnings and the subsequent interrogation were given in the same or different places ...; (3) whether the warnings were given and the subsequent interrogation conducted by the same or different officers ...; (4) the extent to which the subsequent statement differed from any previous statements ...; (5) the apparent intellectual and emotional state of the suspect.””

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

3. “The trial court sustained the prosecutor's objection to this question. Defendant contends that the trial court should have allowed him to inquire into the prospective juror's possible bias toward the death penalty based on his religious views and that this ruling prevented defendant from asking the prospective juror whether his religious views would prevent or impair his ability to follow the law. However, even a cursory review of the transcript reveals that defendant did not ask that particular question. What defendant was prevented from asking was whether the prospective juror believed in”

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