Clinton v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

55 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 56 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Intelligence, and not age, is the proper test by which the competency of such witnesses must be determined; and, where it appears that an infant has sufficient intelligence to receive just impressions of the facts respecting which he is to testify, and sufficient capacity to relate them correctly, and has received sufficient instruction to appreciate the nature and obligations of an oath, he should be admitted to testify, no matter what his age.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 683 So. 2d 1101 - Simmons v. State · 650 So. 2d 969 - Lowe v. State

2. “whether an infant of tender years has sufficient mental capacity and sense of moral obligation to be competent as a witness is a question for the discretion of the trial judge, and his ruling in that regard will not be disturbed, except in case of a manifest abuse of discretion, or where the witness is admitted or rejected upon an erroneous view of a legal principle.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 683 So. 2d 1101 - Simmons v. State

3. “... at the next trial the witness be questioned more fully along the lines of his capacity and competency, and that, if it seems necessary, he be instructed as to the pains and penalties of perjury and as to the nature and obligation of an oath.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 264 So. 2d 431 - Harrold v. Schluep