State v. Smith’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 federal appellate · 22 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. “[V]oir dire examination is the better forum for ascertaining the existence of hostility towards the accused.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Bland v. Davison County · State v. Rhines

2. “It is one thing to hold that a juror may not be challenged for cause on account of a very small interest which he may have as a taxpayer, but quite another thing to conclude that an entire jury of taxpayers, each of whom is interested to a small degree adversely to the defendant, gives that assurance of a fair trial to which every litigant is entitled. A jury is drawn from the body of the county, and, conceding that where the persons adversely interested in the result of an action are confined to a locality, and the number is small in comparison with the population of the county, no right to a change of place of trial would exist, we are convinced that the trial court was justified in concluding that the number of jurors from the city of Sioux Falls on a panel would be so proportionately large that an impartial jury could not be selected and that the trial court did not abuse its discretion.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Bland v. Davison County

3. “Pretrial publicity alone is not enough to deny a fair trial or, in other words, to warrant a change in venue. If the jurors were unaware of the pretrial publicity or could not recall it, or if knowledge of the publicity did not cause a prejudicial opinion to be formed, a change of venue [is] unwarranted.”

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