Williams v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

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

1. “[I]f the police ... deliberately delay presentment in order to conduct a custodial interrogation, any resulting confession must be regarded as laden with suspicion. The violation of the Rule in such a circumstance will have to be given very heavy weight, by both the suppression court and by the trier of fact, in determining the overall voluntariness of the confession. Obviously, the longer any unlawful delay, the greater is the weight that must be given to the prospect of coercion.”

   6 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 172 Md. App. 75 - Daniels v. State · Facon v. State

2. “(a) Confession not rendered inadmissible.—A confession may not be excluded from evidence solely because the defendant was not taken before a judicial officer after arrest within any time period specified by Title 4 of the Maryland Rules. (b) Effect of failure to comply strictly with Title 4 of the Maryland Rules.—Failure to strictly comply with the provisions of Title 4 of the Maryland Rules pertaining to taking a defendant before a judicial officer after arrest is only one factor, among others, to be considered by the court in deciding the voluntariness and admissibility of a confession.”

   5 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 158 Md. App. 402 - Freeman v. State · 155 Md. App. 1 - Perez v. State

3. “In cases where we are called upon to determine whether a confession has been made voluntarily, we generally look at the totality of the circumstances affecting the interrogation and confession. We look to all of the elements of the interrogation to determine whether a suspect’s confession was given to the police through the exercise of free will or was coerced through the use of improper means. On the non-exhaustive list of factors we consider are the length of the interrogation, the manner in which it was conducted, the number of police officers present throughout the interrogation, and the age, education and experience of the suspect. Maryland law requires that “no confession or other significantly incriminating remark allegedly made by an accused be used as evidence against him, unless it first be shown to be free of any coercive barnacles that may have attached by improper means to prevent the expression from being voluntary.””

   4 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 162 Md. App. 55 - Harper v. State · 174 Md. App. 259 - State v. Rush