State v. Garcell’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate · 60 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 62 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““We will not find error in a trial court’s failure to intervene in closing arguments ex mero mo tu unless the remarks were so grossly improper they rendered the trial and conviction fundamentally unfair.” “[0]nly an extreme impropriety on the part of the prosecutor will compel this Court to hold that the trial judge abused his discretion in not recognizing and correcting ex mero motu an argument that defense counsel apparently did not believe was prejudicial when originally spoken.””

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Blakeman · State v. Harris

2. ““When there is a substantial reason to fear that the jury has become aware of improper and prejudicial matters, the trial court must question the jury as to whether such exposure has occurred and, if so, whether the exposure was prejudicial.” State v. Barts, 316 N.C. 666, 683 , 343 S.E.2d 828, 839 (1986) (emphasis added) (citations omitted). When error is alleged in this manner, it is typically because the possibility of some type of improper external contact involving a juror or jurors is brought to the trial court’s attention. See, e.g., Hurst, 360 N.C. at 186-87, 624 S.E.2d at 315-16 (in which a prospective alternate juror stated during voir dire he had read a newspaper article concerning the case in the jury room); State v. Willis, 332 N.C. 151, 172 , 420 S.E.2d 158, 168 (1992) (in which the trial court learned “ ‘one of the family members of one of the parties may have talked to one of the jurors’ ”).”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 210 N.C. App. 609 - State v. Oliver

3. “[corroborative testimony is testimony which tends to strengthen, confirm, or make more certain the testimony of another witness. In order to be admissible as corroborative evidence, a witness’ [J prior consistent statements merely must tend to add weight or credibility to the witness’s testimony. Further, it is well established that such corroborative evidence may contain new or additional facts when it tends to strengthen and add credibility to the testimony which it corroborates. If the previous statements are generally consistent with the witness’ testimony, slight variations will not render the statements inadmissible, but such variations ... affect [only] the credibility of the statement. A trial court has wide latitude in deciding when a prior consistent statement can be admitted for corroborative, nonhearsay purposes.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 200 N.C. App. 517 - State v. Tellez