Hearn v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 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 3 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““ ‘ “Our investigation leads us to conclude that where the evidence, as here, shows the fingerprint found at the scene of the crime was left there by the criminal at the time the crime was committed, thereby excluding the hypothesis that it might have been placed there innocently prior to or subsequent to the commission of the crime, and the evidence further shows that said print is identical with known prints of accused, that such evidence satisfied the law and excludes every reasonably hypothesis save guilt of the accused.” ’ ””

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

2. ““.... In some cases the expert may be able to offer an opinion as to the age of a latent print, however, this type of evidence should be predicated on a showing that the expert conducted a proper control test duplicating the conditions obtained at the site of the latent.””

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