Johnson v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

131 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 132 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[I]f one cannot say, with fair assurance, after pondering al that happened without stripping the erroneous action from the whole, that the judgment was not substantially swayed by the error, it is impossible to conclude that substantial rights were not affected. The inquiry cannot be merely whether there was enough to support the result, apart from the phase affected by the error. It is rather, even so, whether the error itself had substantial influence. If so, or if one is left in grave doubt, the conviction cannot stand.”

   6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Williams v. State · Dixon v. State

2. “It is the privilege of accused to exclude from jury service one [who], in his judgment, is unacceptable to him. In conferring it, the law gives effect to the natural impulse to eliminate from the jury list not only persons who are rendered incompetent for some of the disqualifying causes named in the statute, but persons who, by reason of politics, religion, environment, association, or appearance, or by reason of the want of information with reference to them, the accused may object to their service upon the jury to which the disposition of his life or liberty is submitted. In other words, the law fixes the number of challenges and confers upon the accused the right to arbitrarily exercise them. 12”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Comeaux, Farrain Joseph · 894 So. 2d 88 - Busby v. State

3. “preservation of error and harm issues within the context of an erroneous denial of a challenge for cause”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. McGuire v. State · Escamilla v. State