Conyers v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

182 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 182 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[T]he main purpose of Md. Rule 8-131(a) is to make sure that all parties in a case are accorded fair treatment, and also to encourage the orderly administration of the law. Toward that end, we stated in Bell : “The interests of fairness are furthered by ‘requiring] counsel to bring the position of their client to the attention of the lower court at the trial so that the trial court can pass upon, and possibly correct any errors in the proceedings.’ ””

   5 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 191 Md. App. 48 - Washington v. State · Washington v. State

2. “decide any other issue unless it plainly appears by the record to have been raised in or decided by the trial court ....”

   4 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Devincentz v. State · 174 Md. App. 549 - Evans v. State

3. “The few cases where we have exercised our discretion to review unpreserved issues are cases where prejudicial error was found and the failure to preserve the issue was not a matter of trial tactics.... We usually elect to review an unpreserved issue only after it has been thoroughly briefed and argued, and where a decision would (1) help correct a recurring error, (2) provide guidance when there is likely to be a new trial, or (3) offer assistance if there is a subsequent collateral attack on the conviction.”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Abeokuto v. State · Robinson v. State