Townsend 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. ““Following the court’s oral charge to the jury, defense counsel objected to the court’s failure to charge the jury on the appellant’s right not to testify in the case. This oral exception was sufficient to preserve error under Rule 14, A.R.Cr. P.Temp., even though defense counsel did not submit a written charge covering the matter of the appellant’s failure to so testify. See Matkins v. State, 497 So.2d 194 (Ala.Cr.App.1985). “The trial court committed reversible error by refusing defense counsel’s request to charge the jury on the effect of the appellant’s failure to testify. Perry v. State, 368 So.2d 310 (Ala.1979).””

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