Wallace v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

18 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 18 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “If the petitioner moves for a new trial “on the grounds that the conviction was based on unreliable scientific evidence,” then the court must determine whether a “substantial possibility exists that the petitioner would not have been convicted without the evidence.” CP § 8-201 (c) (emphasis added). Similarly, “[i]f the results of the postconviction DNA testing are favorable to the petitioner,” then the court must find “that a substantial possibility exists that the petitioner would not have been convicted if the DNA testing results had been known or introduced at trial” before ordering a new trial. CP § 8—201 (i)(2)(iii) (emphasis added). Because this “substantial possibility” standard relates to whether the outcome of the petitioner’s trial would have been different, it is a higher threshold than the “reasonable probability” standard, which relates only to whether the DNA testing has the potential to produce exculpatory or mitigating evidence, not what the effect of that evidence would have been at trial.”

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

2. “The threshold that a petitioner must satisfy in order to show that the State had a duty to preserve certain evidence under the Postconviction DNA Testing Statute is lower than the threshold that a petitioner must satisfy in order to be entitled to DNA testing on that evidence. In other words, evidence that satisfies the “reasonable probability” standard of subsection (d), and is therefore subject to DNA testing, is a subcategory of evidence that satisfies the definition of “scientific identification evidence” in subsection (a), and is therefore subject to the State’s duty of preservation. “Scientific identification evidence” includes all evidence that “contains biological evidence from which DNA may be recovered that may produce exculpatory or mitigating evidence relevant to a claim of a convicted person of wrongful conviction or sentencing if subject to DNA testing.””

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

3. “standard in CP § 8-201(d)(1)(i). In short, if there is biological evidence from which DNA could possibly be recovered, which in turn could possibly produce exculpatory or mitigating evidence, then the statutory definition is met. Id. In determining whether the scraping is scientific identification evidence as defined by the statute, we”

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