516 So. 2d 375 - State v. Burnes’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

5 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 5 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Accepting as true relator’s allegations concerning police procedure for handling homicides, we find that relator may obtain as a public record the initial report of the officer or officers investigating the complaint, e.g. someone heard a gunshot, someone saw a shooting, someone found a man who had been shot, | .^someone found a dead man, etcetera (sic). If those officers after investigating the complaint determined that there apparently had been a homicide and that internal department policy required them to relinquish subsequent investigation to the homicide detectives, that department procedure does not change the statute. If those officers prepared a report of their investigation of the complaint, it is a public record to which relator has access. The subsequent report of the further investigation of the homicide detectives is not available to relator and is expressly excluded by the statute. La. R.S. 44:3A (4). If the officers investigating the complaint did not prepare a report, obviously relator may not obtain it. The failure of those officers to prepare a report does not then make the first report prepared a public record. Only the initial report of the officer or officers investigating the complaint is a public record. When officers respond to a complaint they may, among other things, investigate to determine the factual nature of the complaint, the veracity of the complainant and the validity of the complaint, whether the complaint indicates the commission of a crim”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 704 So. 2d 977 - State v. Washington

2. “"A. Nothing in this Chapter shall be construed to require disclosures of records, or the information contained therein, held by the offices of the attorney general, district attorneys, sheriffs, police departments, Department of Public Safety, marshals, investigators, correctional agencies, or intelligence agencies of the state, which records are: (1) Records pertaining to pending criminal litigation or any criminal litigation which can be reasonably anticipated, until such litigation has been finally adjudicated or otherwise settled: or * * * * * * (4)(a) The records of the arrest of a person, other than the report of the officer or officers investigating a complaint, until a final judgment of conviction or the acceptance of a plea of guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction. However, the initial report of the officer or officers investigating a complaint, but not to apply to any follow up or subsequent report or investigation, records of the booking of a person as provided in Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure Article 228, records of the issuance of a summons or citation, and records of the filing of a bill of information shall be a public record." (emphasis added).”

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