Freeman v. State’s Empirical Analysis
1971
Citation profile
37 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 37 later decisions — most recently January 2018 · most notably State v. Cavallo (1982), 167 W. Va. 830 - State v. Beck (1981)
37 state decisions — followed in 10 states
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on Spencer v. State of Texas a Bell · Michelson v. United States · People v. Kelley · 31 Cal. 2d 469 - People v. Westek · People v. Cramer
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 37 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Ultimately, the admissibility of evidence of [other] crimes must be governed by balancing its probative value on a given issue against the potential for prejudice which it creates. Tenuous or marginal probative value of [other] crimes evidence must never be allowed to serve as an excuse for implanting prejudice in the minds of the jury.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passagee.g. Demmert v. State · Vessell v. State“Evidence that reveals the commission of an offense other than that for which the defendant is being tried is inadmissible if it is relevant merely to show criminal disposition. But such evidence is admissible, even when it shows the defendant's prior trouble with the law, when it is relevant to prove some other material fact. [4]”
2 later decisions quote this exact passagee.g. Demmert v. State · Lamont v. State““Evidence of other offenses committed by the accused will always be potentially prejudicial; for this reason, before such evidence is admitted, care must be taken to ascertain whether it is actually necessary in the circumstances of the particular case.””
2 later decisions quote this exact passagee.g. Fields v. State · Vessell v. State
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.