Brown v. State’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. ““Counsel’s remarks will not be deemed a reference to the defendant’s failure to testify where they could have been understood to apply to the nonproduction of a witness other than the defendant, or where there is nothing in the record to show that there were not other witnesses than the defendant who might have given testimony relevant to the issue. A reference to the lack of evidence concerning the activities or whereabouts of a defendant at a certain time is therefore not improper where it is shown that third persons could have testified to those matters. “A general reference to the defendant’s failure to produce evidence is not barred by the provision prohibiting comment on defendant’s failure to testify, and comment is barred only to the extent that the failure to testify is necessarily implied. For the prosecutor’s argument to come within the mandatory prohibition of the statute prohibiting comment on the defendant’s failure to testify, it must be such as cannot be reasonably applied to the failure of the accused to produce testimony other than his own. The provision is thus not transgressed by a statement to the effect that the accused has offered no defense, or an inadequate defense, or that the defense is a fabrication.””

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