State v. Adams-Bey’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

12 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 12 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “As the Majority indicates, instructions are “advisory” where a trial court instructs the jurors that they are the judges of the law, and the trial court fails to instruct the jury that the trial court’s instructions on matters other than the law of the crime, such as the State’s burden of proof and the presumption of innocence, are binding—ie., not advisory. Thus, for example, in my view, where a trial court instructs a jury that the trial court’s instructions on the law of the crime are “advisory only,” but that all of the trial court’s other instructions are binding, such instructions would not be deemed “advisory instructions” of the type that Unger proscribes.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. 231 Md. App. 285 - Calhoun-El v. State

2. “[I]t is incumbent upon a trial judge to carefully delineate for the jury the following dichotomy: (i) that the jury, under Article 23, is the final arbiter of disputes as to the substantive “law of the crime,” as well as the “legal effect of the evidence,” and that any comments by the judge concerning these matters are advisory only; and (ii) that, by virtue of this same constitutional provision, all other aspects of law (e.g., the burden of proof, the requirement of unanimity, the validity of a statute) are beyond the jury’s pale, and that the judge’s comments on these matters are binding upon that body.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 231 Md. App. 285 - Calhoun-El v. State

3. “The State’s reliance on the ‘reasonable likelihood’ test is misplaced, as this was the test adopted by the Supreme Court for review of jury instructions that are ambiguous. [[Image here]] Ambiguity is not the issue in Article 23 advisory only jury instructions; rather, such instructions are clear, but erroneous, as they give the jury permission to disregard any or all of the court’s instructions, including those bedrock due process instructions on the presumption of innocence and the State’s burden of proving the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 231 Md. App. 285 - Calhoun-El v. State