Steele v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

26 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 27 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “It is fundamental that convictions of crime cannot be sustained on proof which amounts to no more than a possibility or even when it amounts to a probability, but it must rise to the height which will exclude every reasonable doubt; that when in any essential respect the state relies on circumstantial evidence, it must be such as to exclude every other reasonable hypothesis than that the contention of the state is true, and that throughout the burden of proof is on the state. It is our duty here to maintain these principles.”

   5 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 829 So. 2d 29 - Kolberg v. State · 566 So. 2d 1201 - Murphy v. State

2. “reasonable hypothesis consistent with innocence”

   4 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Williams v. State · 835 So. 2d 42 - Joiner v. State

3. “legally insufficient to establish anything more than a probability of guilty and did not `invest mere circumstances with the force of truth.'”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Cox v. State · 829 So. 2d 29 - Kolberg v. State