4 Smith & H. 7 - Curran v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

51 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 52 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[T]he circuit judge hears the testimony, just as the jury does, sees the witnesses, and observes their demeanor upon the witness stand; that,- by his training and experience in the weighing of testimony, and the application of legal rules thereto, he is especially qualified for the correction of any errors into which the jury by inexperience may have fallen, whereby they have failed, in their verdict, to reach the justice and right of the case, under the testimony and the charge of the court; that, in our system, this is one of the functions the circuit judge possesses and should exercise — as it were, that of a thirteenth juror. So it is said that he must be satisfied, as well as the jury; that it is his duty to weigh the evidence, and, if he is dissatisfied with the verdict of the jury, he should set it aside.”

   12 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Halliburton v. State · State v. Barone

2. ““The Court attaches great weight to the fact that the Circuit Judge, having seen and heard the witnesses testify, and having submitted the case to a jury known to himself, has stamped the verdict with his approval by refusing to grant a new trial. Much of the importance and weight attached to jury trials proceeds from the presumption that an intelligent and learned Circuit Judge, accustomed to weighing evidence, has scrutinized the proof, looked into the faces of the witnesses, and indorsed the action of the jury. The integrity and value of jury trial will largely disappear if Circuit Judges shall endeavor to avoid the duty imposed upon them by law in this regard.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. David Sherlin v. Roberson

3. ““In civil cases at law it has been repeatedly held that the appellate courts will not review the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain a verdict, unless the verdict has received the approval of the trial judge, and in Turner v. Turner, 85 Tenn. 387 , 3 S.W. 121 , this court said that the rule that a verdict will not be disturbed on appeal when supported by any material evidence ‘is based mainly upon the consideration that the Circuit Judge has approved the verdict because satisfied with it, and not because he has approved it, although dissatisfied with it.’ ” (Emphasis ours.)”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. David Sherlin v. Roberson