State v. Raywalt’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

27 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. “Admission of prior convictions is governed generally by Rules 403 and 404, N.D.R.Evid. Rule 404(b) provides that evidence of other crimes is admissible to prove “motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, or absence of mistake or accident.” Although relevant for such purposes, evidence of other crimes may still be excluded “if its probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice.” Rule 403, N.D.R.Evid. Thus, the trial court is called upon to balance the probative value of the evidence against its prejudicial effect in determining whether to admit evidence of a defendant’s past crimes. State v. Micko, 393 N.W.2d 741, 744-745 (N.D.1986). In addition, Section 12.1-31.1-02(2), N.D.C.C., provides that, in determining whether an object is drug paraphernalia, a court or other authority may consider the prior drug convictions of the owner or person in control of the object. The State argues that the statute makes evidence of a prior conviction automatically admissible, without taking into consideration the prejudicial effect of such evidence under Rule 403. We, however, view the statute as dealing with relevance, not admissibility, of evidence. Thus, although the evidence of Ray-walt’s prior conviction for delivery of methamphetamine is relevant to the issue of whether the drug recipe constituted paraphernalia, the trial court still must employ the balancing test of Rule 403 to determine whether its probative value is outweighed ”

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