State v. Bone’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

72 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 74 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “a finding of first-degree murder based on theories of premeditation and deliberation and of felony murder is significant.”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Smith · State v. Bell

2. “"[p]robable cause for an arrest has been defined to be a reasonable ground of suspicion, supported by circumstances sufficiently strong in themselves to warrant a cautious man in believing the accused to be guilty.... To establish probable cause the evidence need not amount to proof of guilt, or even to prima facie evidence of guilt, but it must be such as would actuate a reasonable man acting in good faith." ... Probable cause "deal[s] with probabilities. These are not technical; they are the factual and practical considerations of everyday life on which reasonable and prudent men, not legal technicians, act."”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 188 N.C. App. 701 - State v. Campbell · 248 N.C. App. 112 - State v. Williams

3. “subjective opinion is not material. Nor are the courts bound by an officer's mistaken legal conclusion as to the existence or non-existence of probable cause or reasonable grounds for his actions. The search or seizure is valid when the objective facts known to the officer meet the standard required.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 262 N.C. App. 466 - State v. Cole · State v. Nicholson