39 Ill. App. 3d 677 - People v. Uselding’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

18 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 19 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““Circumstantial evidence is the proof of facts or circumstances which give rise to a reasonable inference of other facts which tend to show the guilt or innocence of the defendant. Circumstantial evidence should be considered by you together with all the other evidence in the case in arriving at your verdict. [You should not find the defendant guilty unless the facts and circumstances proved exclude every reasonable theory of innocence.]””

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 95 Ill. App. 3d 910 - People v. Stanley · United States ex rel. Snyder v. Illinois

2. ““The rule is that to support a conviction based on circumstantial evidence, the facts produced must not only be consistent with defendant’s guilt, but they must also be inconsistent with any reasonable hypothesis of innocence. Such proof need not be beyond the possibility of a doubt (People v. Branion, 47 Ill. 2d 70 , 265 N.E.2d 1 , cert. denied, 403 U.S. 907 , 29 L. Ed. 2d 683 , 91 S. Ct. 2213 ), and may be inferred from the circumstances proved. (People v. Huff, 29 Ill. 2d 315 , 194 N.E.2d 230 .) This rule does not contemplate that the trier of fact is required to search out a series of potential explanations compatible with innocence and elevate them to the status of a reasonable doubt, but a jury’s verdict will be reversed on grounds of insufficient evidence where there is a reasonable and well founded doubt of guilt and the verdict is found to be palpably contrary to the weight of the evidence. People v. Zuniga, 53 Ill. 2d 550 , 293 N.E.2d 595 .” People v. Harris, 34 Ill. App. 3d 906, 908 , 340 N.E.2d 327, 329 ; cf. People v. Uselding (1976), 39 Ill. App. 3d 677 , 350 N.E.2d 283 .”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. People v. Lawrence