State v. Meriwether’s Empirical Analysis
1982
Citation profile
10 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 10 later decisions — most recently May 2010
10 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on United States v. Agurs · 350 So. 2d 615 - State v. Sheppard · 315 So. 2d 675 - State v. Carlisle · State v. Findley · 377 So. 2d 308 - State v. Carthan
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 10 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“On the morning of the third day of trial and after the victim had testified on the previous day, the trial judge informed defense counsel and assistant district attorney that a Ms. Mona R. Verrette, one of the jurors, had come to his chambers that morning and told him that she was acquainted with the victim although on voir dire she stated that she did not know her. When the jurors were questioned on voir dire regarding knowledge, of the victim, the victim’s married name, as it' appeared in the indictment, was used. Since Ms. Ver-rette knew the victim only by her maiden name, she did not realize she knew [the victim] until [the victim] was called to testify. The judge further informed both counsel that the juror told him that she had gone to school with the victim and saw her regularly at Randy’s supermarket where the victim was employed and at Hardy’s where the juror was employed. The judge additionally stated that he had questioned Ms Verrett as to whether she had a fixed opinion as to the guilt or innocence of the accused and she replied that she did not. He also asked her “if she 117could decide the case, putting aside her acquaintanceship with the victim; decide the case strictly on the evidence that she hears in the courtroom and the law as I explain it to her at the end of the trial, and she replied that she could do that.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“While Ms. Verrette inadvertently made a false statement during voir dire, there is no showing that the acquaintance between the victim and Ms. Verrette was such as would prevent defendant from receiving a fair trial. There is no reason to believe that merely because Ms. Verrette and the victim knew each other when they were in school and patronized the other’s place of employment it would influence the juror in arriving at a verdict. Moreover, when questioned by the trial judge, Ms. Verrette indicated that she could put aside her acquaintance with the victim and decide the case strictly on the evidence and the law as explained to her by the judge. Under the circumstances, we are unable to say that the trial judge abused his discretion in failing to order a mistrial.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“"A mistrial may be ordered, and in a jury case the jury dismissed, when: (6) False statements of a juror on voir dire prevent a fair trial."”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.