45 Md. App. 323 - Leuschner v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

23 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 23 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““Because of the western world’s ingrained belief in the sanctity of human life, the viewing of a child’s cadaver recently exposed in a shallow grave is psychologically more grotesque than a viewing of heroin recently possessed by an accused; but both viewings are purposed to the same end, i.e., to elicit a confession. The viewing procedure itself is not conclusive of involuntariness, [citation]. A victim’s remains would no more coerce, compel or improperly induce an innocent person to confess to a murder that he did not commit than a heroin display would coerce, compel or improperly induce an innocent person to confess to owning narcotics that he had not possessed. “. . . The contemporary responsibility of law enforcement officers to use more sophisticated methods of extracting confessions makes our review of the circumstances surrounding a confession more difficult because of the more delicate judgments to be made. ...” ( 413 A.2d at p. 242 .) “ ‘Of course, such inquiries have limits. But the limits are not defined merely by calling an interrogation an “inquisition,” which adds to the problem only the emotions inherited from medieval experience. The limits in any case depend upon a weighing of the circumstances of pressure against the power of resistance of the person confessing.’” (Id., at p. 244.)”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. People v. Adams