State v. LaPierre’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

9 federal appellate · 38 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 49 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““Bisignano asked the trial court to try the issue of voluntariness in the absence of the jury. No reason was advanced for that course, defendant simply contending the jury had to be excused. There is disagreement elsewhere as to the propriety of taking the testimony initially in the presence of the jury. See Meltzer, ‘Involuntary Confessions: The Allocation of Responsibility between Judge and Jury,’ 21 U. Chi. L. Rev. 317, 330 (1954) ; Annotation 148 A. L. R. 546 (1944). The differences may well be influenced by the roles ascribed to judge and jury in the several jurisdictions. We have but recently reiterated that the subject rests in the sound discretion of the trial court. State v. Walker, 33 N. J. 580, 592 (1960). We are not dissuaded from that view by the argument here advanced, that a judge may be influenced to admit a confession because, if it is excluded after testimony is taken in the jury’s presence, there will likely be a defense motion for a mistrial. The question then is whether the trial court misused its discretion. We think it did not. Defendant did not point to a fair need to excuse the jury either throughout or during some stage of the hearing. Nor does it appear that the inquiry was in fact hampered by the jury’s presence; and since the confession was later admitted into evidence, it was not harmful that the jury probably surmised at once the nature of the document in question.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. State v. Broxton

2. “* * Bisignano demanded particulars, in response to which the State said the killing was ‘a felony murder, specifically a murder in the course of a robbery.’ The complaint is that the State proved only an attempt to rob, since it did not prove that anything was taken. While acknowledging that a killing in an attempt to rob is equally murder in the first degree, defendant nonetheless claims a fatal variance. It is perfectly obvious that defendant was not misled. The examination of the prospective jurors reveals that all defendants knew precisely what was involved.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. State v. Mathis

3. ““So here, the indictment was valid. Defendant’s remedy, if he conceived that he was prejudiced by the lack of counsel before the juvenile court, was to make a seasonable application before it after counsel was assigned, as was done in Tuddles.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. State v. Loray