State v. Edge’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 district · 35 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 37 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “There is no need to speak of alibi in such separate terms.... The important thing is to make it plain to jurors that to convict they must be satisfied ... that guilt has been established beyond a reasonable doubt. If a defendant's factual claim is laid beside the State's and the jury understands that a reasonable doubt may arise out of the defense testimony as well as the State's, the jury has the issue in plain, unconfusing terms. If events at the trial should be thought to suggest to the jury that the defendant has the burden of proving he could not physically have committed the crime, then of course the trial court should dissipate that danger by telling the jury that the defendant does not have the burden of proving where he was at the critical time and that evidence offered on that score is to be considered with all the proof in deciding whether there is a reasonable doubt as to guilt. [ Id. at 274 , 208 A. 2d 402 .]”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. State v. Echols

2. “it would have been wiser for the trial judge to have honored the request.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 398 N.J. Super. 192 - State v. Echols