Eierle v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

4 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 4 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “As to the admissibility of the medical examiner's testimony, a review of the record shows that the witness was a qualified pathologist, that he conducted a thorough autopsy on the deceased's body, and that by a process of elimination he concluded, based on a reasonable medical certainty, that the deceased had died from suffocation or strangulation. He found no evidence of disease, trauma to the body, obstruction to the throat, drugs, insect or snake bites. He did state on cross-examination that he regarded his opinion as a "guess", but he clarified this testimony on redirect examination by stating that this was his opinion based on a reasonable medical certainty. A medical witness may reach a conclusion by the process of elimination through excluding natural causes of death. This process of elimination will not render the witness' conclusion inadmissible, but merely affects the weight to be given his testimony which must be determined by the jury. Vaillancourt v. State, 288 So.2d 216 (Fla.1974).”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 881 So. 2d 1137 - Huck v. State