Curtin v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

47 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 47 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““It is obviously not reasonable to presume that [narcotics violations and sexual abuse of a minor] are the only kinds of crimes about which public emotion may run high. Surely, there are others. Having found that those kinds of criminal activity may so enrage prospective jurors as to require specific voir dire questions to ferret out possible bias, what standard will the Court use to distinguish one crime from another? “We have essentially taken judicial notice that some people may have particularly strong feelings about narcotics crimes. Is it not equally likely that some will have the same strong feelings about other crimes-burglary, robbery, rape, arson, not to mention murder. Some may be incensed over gambling or prostitution, or wanton, vicious assault, or cruelty to animals, or fraud. If the question is phrased as here-whether the prospective juror has such strong feelings about the crime as to make it difficult (or impossible) to weigh the facts fairly-what difference does it make what the crime is?””

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Stewart v. State · State v. Shim

2. “"Does anyone have any strong feelings concerning the use of handguns that they would be unable to render a fair and impartial verdict based on the evidence?"”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 172 Md. App. 168 - Singfield v. State · Moore v. State

3. “There is a lot to be said for Judge Wilner’s concurrence in this case. It makes the point, and quite well, that this Court already has required voir dire questions designed to ferret out bias, arising from and/or based on certain charged offenses, that, in that regard, this Court already has embarked on and endorsed, an approach different from that espoused and touted as the approach our existing case law supports. Acknowledging our decisions in Thomas and Sweet , he recognizes the unreasonableness in presuming that the crimes at issue in those cases “are the only kinds of crimes about which public emotion may run high.” In addition, Judge Wilner concedes that the additional voir dire required to inquire into charged crime bias is not likely to be lengthy or cause undue trial delay. We already have decided and agreed that certain crimes — we have specifically singled out child sexual offenses and narcotic offenses — may trigger sufficiently strong reactions in potential jurors as to make questionable their ability to render a fair and impartial verdict. If, in narcotics and child sex abuse cases, inquiry of the venire is required because we have determined those crimes to evoke strong emotional reactions which may amount to bias, why do we not recognize that there are other crimes that may evoke the same or more extreme reactions. It is unconscionable that we would inquire in some cases, those we have specifically recognized, but refuse to do so in those other cases, simply b”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. State v. Shim