State v. Lee’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 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 2 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Lee had no record of the previous DSS investigation into the alleged abuse. He could not gain access to evidence concerning the Department of Juvenile Justice investigating officer or records from the family court proceedings. Because Lee never had access to these records, it was admittedly difficult for him to accurately identify specific pieces of evidence that would have exonerated him. Nonetheless, the absence of any contemporaneous evidence prejudiced Lee’s ability to defend himself, as he had no ability to cross-examine the State’s witnesses nor obtain items of exculpatory evidence. The missing evidence, although possibly damaging, on balance would have likely benefited [sic] Lee because it would have revealed the State’s justification for placing the stepchildren back in the home with Lee and revealed why the State did not prosecute him in 1988 or 1989.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 223 W. Va. 594 - State Ex Rel. Knotts v. Facemire