United States v. Reed’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

69 federal appellate · 1 district · 10 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 89 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““ . . . vitiated his right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty and was prejudicial error. Repeated objections to this testimony were sustained, but the testimony remained. This testimony made the difference between the trial of a man presumptively innocent of any criminal wrongdoing and the trial of a known convict. His right not to take the stand in his own defense was substantially destroyed. His past record could not have been directly shown by the prosecution as part of its case to prove bad character since Reed’s character was not in issue. The testimony did this indirectly.””

   4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. United States v. Robinson · 2 Va. App. 447 - Johnson v. Commonwealth

2. “[I]t is not the appellate court’s function to determine guilt or innocence. * * * Nor is it to speculate upon probable reconviction and decide according to how the speculation comes out. * * * Those judgments are exclusively for the jury. •X- * -X- But this does not mean that the appellate court can escape altogether taking account of the outcome. To weigh the error’s effect against the entire setting of the record without relation to the verdict or judgment would be almost to work in a vacuum. * * * In criminal causes that outcome is conviction. This is different, or may be, from guilt in fact. It is guilt in law, established by the judgment of laymen. And the question is, not were they right in their judgment, regardless of the error or its effect upon the verdict. It is rather what effect the error had or reasonably may be taken to have had upon the jury’s decision. The crucial thing is the impact of the thing done wrong on the minds of other men, not on one’s own, in the total setting. * * * ****#•*• If, when all is said and done, the conviction is sure that the error did not influence the jury, or had but very slight effect, the verdict and the judgment should stand. * * *”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. United States v. Panczko

3. “Upon objections of relevancy and hearsay to evidence of prior extrajudicial identification, the courts have considered the reliability of the means of the prior identification, the fairness of the manner in which those means were used, the existence of any prejudicial effect, the purpose for which the evidence is introduced (i.e., as substantive evidence or merely as corroborative of a witness sought to be impeached), and whether the witness testifying is the same person who made the prior identification or merely an observer of it.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Irving v. Commonwealth