State v. LeClair’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 federal appellate · 34 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 36 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “When the state produces circumstantial evidence tending to support an inference of the defendant’s guilt, the jury must also consider, of course, any explanation for the evidence consistent with the defendant’s innocence. The jury’s guilty verdict must be based not on a determination that there exists no alternative explanation, but that, after assessing the credibility of such explanations, they raise no reasonable doubts as to the defendant’s guilt.”

   5 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Jettinghoff · State v. Libby

2. “There is one single standard of proof for all criminal convictions, and the test is the same in a case of either circumstantial or direct evidence: whether from all the evidence and from such reasonable inferences as may properly be drawn therefrom the guilt of a defendant has been proved beyond a reasonable doubt.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Pinkham-Murch · State v. Ledger

3. “Especially where the state’s case is based upon circumstantial evidence, the court should allow the defendant ‘wide latitude’ to present all the evidence relevant to his defense, unhampered by piecemeal rulings on admissibility.”

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