Hill v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

51 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 51 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““The Court of Special Appeals will also need to take account of the persistency of the prosecutor’s conduct— continuing to make these remarks time and again despite the court’s rulings that the remarks were improper. A court obviously commits no error when it sustains objections to impermissible comments or gives a proper curative instruction, if that is all that is requested. There is a risk, however, when the prosecutor persistently ignores those rulings and continues in an improper course of conduct, that the jury may come to regard the court’s rulings as rote window dressing and thus pay less attention to them. The number of such rulings may actually assume an inverse significance — the more of them, the less weight each or all of them will have — in which event only a mistrial may serve to remedy the error.””

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Lawson v. State · Lee v. State

2. “The prosecutor is allowed liberal freedom of speech and may make any comment that is warranted by the evidence or inferences reasonably drawn therefrom. In this regard, [generally, ... the prosecuting attorney is as free to comment legitimately and to speak fully, although harshly, on the accused’s action and conduct if the evidence supports his comments, as is accused’s counsel to comment on the nature of the evidence and the character of witnesses which the [prosecution] produces. While arguments of counsel are required to be confined to the issues in the cases on trial, the evidence and fair and reasonable deductions therefrom, and to arguments of opposing counsel, generally speaking, liberal freedom of speech should be allowed. There are no hard-and-fast limitations within which the argument of earnest counsel must be confined—no well-defined bounds beyond which the eloquence of an advocate shall not soar. He may discuss the facts proved or admitted in the pleadings, assess the conduct of the parties, and attack the credibility of witnesses. He may indulge in oratorical conceit or flourish and in illustrations and metaphorical allusions.”

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

3. “A reviewing court will not reverse a conviction due to a prosecutor’s improper comment or comments unless there has been an abuse of discretion by the trial judge of a character likely to have injured the complaining party. We must determine, upon our own independent review of the record, whether we are able to declare a belief, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the error in no way influenced the verdict. A prosecutor’s improper comments influenced the verdict, and therefore require reversal, if it appears that the remarks actually misled the jury or were likely to have misled or influenced the jury to the defendant’s prejudice. To determine whether improper comments influenced the verdict, we look to the facts of the case at hand. In particular, we consider the severity of the remarks, the measures taken to cure any potential prejudice, and the weight of the evidence against the accused. Instead of considering each improper statement independently, ... we look at the cumulative effect of all errors on the ability of a jury to render a fair and impartial verdict in the context of the case.”

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