State v. Bostick’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

28 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 28 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “'[W]hen the [circumstantial] evidence presented merely raises a suspicion of guilt,' the trial court should direct a verdict in favor of the accused.”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Bratschi · State v. Mealor

2. “[T]he following pieces of circumstantial evidence of [Bos-tick’s] guilt had been presented: (1) Polite’s car keys, calculator, and other items from her home were found in the Bostick family’s burn pile; (2) the fire in the burn pile was accelerated with either kerosene or diesel fuel, and Bostick’s mother did not use those accelerants when she burned things in the pile; (3) Bostick had a pattern that matched gasoline on his shoes and gasoline was the accelerant used for the house fire; and (4) while the DNA from the blood found on Bostick’s jeans excluded about ninety-nine percent of the population, the blood could not be matched to Polite’s DNA.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Bratschi

3. “[T]he weapon used to beat Polite in the head was never introduced into evidence. Finally, no evidence was introduced concerning Bostick’s knowledge that Polite may have had money in the briefcase [she typically brought home from church on Sunday with money to deposit at the bank on Monday] or if indeed any money was in the briefcase on that particular Sunday.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Bratschi