State v. Cox’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. “[Tjhings got carried away. [Brossart’s] anger was escalating because he was stopped.... [T]he anger was getting to the point where it did create a safety issue for the deputies and also for [Bros-sart]. Officer Stenvold was going to cite [Brossart], handcuff him so that he could cite him and handcuff him for their safety sake. And at that point, [Brossart] did resist. It was more than just a tensing of his arm as he testified to. [Brossart had] the intent to prevent the officers from handcuffing him and discharging that duty as far as maintaining the safety and getting the citation issued. [Brossart’s resistance] did create a substantial risk of bodily injury to the deputies ... [and] also to the point where it required force, substantial force, by the deputies to overcome [Brossart’s] resistance to their discharge of their duty.”

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

2. “We believe that individual violence cannot replace the rule of law.... Forceful resistance to an unlawful search or seizure is no longer automatically excused, as a matter of law, by exclusion of related evidence or by judicial dismissal.... [T]he criminal statutes still recognize justification defenses as factual remedies for official misconduct.... These defenses do not depend on judicial suppression- of evidence or dismissal of charges. Rather, they depend upon full presentation of the facts to the trier of fact, usually the jury, for determination of the independent nature of the charged offense. Official misconduct is a justification defense to a charge of resisting arrest.”

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

3. “when the lawfulness of the police conduct has a bearing on the ultimate question of the defendant’s guilt or innocence, the jury must be permitted to resolve any factual disputes concerning the lawfulness of the police conduct. Only when the facts are not in dispute may the trial court resolve the issue as a matter of law.”

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