Taylor v. State’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. “[“] Dorsey v. State, ... we adopted the test for harmless error announced by the Supreme Court in Chapman v. State[, 386 U.S. 18 , 87 S.Ct. 824 , 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967) ] .... As adopted in Dorsey , the harmless error rule is: □When an appellant, in a criminal case, establishes error, unless a reviewing court, upon its own independent review of the record, is able to declare a belief, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the error in no way influenced the verdict, such error cannot be deemed “harmless” and a reversal is mandated. Such reviewing court must thus be satisfied that there is no reasonable possibility that the evidence complained of—whether erroneously admitted or excluded—may have contributed to the rendition of the guilty verdict. [’] [“] performing a harmless error analysis, we are not to find facts or weigh evidence. Instead, what evidence to believe, what weight to be given it, and what facts flow from that evidence are for the jury ... to determine. Once it has been determined that error was committed, reversal is required unless the error did not influence the verdict; the error is harmless only if it did not play any role in the jury’s verdict. The reviewing court must exclude that possibility beyond a reasonable doubt. To say that an error did not contribute to the verdict is, rather, to find that error unimportant in relation to everything else the jury considered on the issue in question, as revealed by the record. The harmless error rule ... has been and shou”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 231 Md. App. 533 - Butler & Duncan v. State

2. “(b) Impeachment by examination regarding witness’s own prior conduct not resulting in convictions. The court may permit any witness to be examined regarding the witness’s own prior conduct that did not result in a conviction but that the court finds probative of a character trait of untruthfulness. Upon objection, however, the court may permit the inquiry only if the questioner, outside the hearing of the jury, establishes a reasonable factual basis for asserting that the conduct of the witness occurred. The conduct may not be proved by extrinsic evidence.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 211 Md. App. 198 - Baltimore Police Department v. Ellsworth

3. “The rationale for this viewpoint is obvious. First of all, accusations of misconduct are still clothed with the presumption of innocence and receiving mere accusations for this purpose would be tantamount to accepting someone else’s assertion of the witness’ guilt and pure hearsay.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 185 Md. App. 317 - Height v. State