Hodges v. Rose’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

41 federal appellate · 1 district · 9 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 68 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[A] trial court cannot decide on the admissibility of a statement under Bruton on the basis of the strength of the state’s case. Rather, the court must decide whether the statement incriminates the defendant against whom it is inadmissible in such a way as to create a "substantial risk” that the jury will look to the statement in deciding on that defendant's guilt. Such an assessment may require consideration of other evidence in order to determine whether mere deletion of the defendant’s name will be effective in making the statement non-incriminating as to him. But consideration of the weight of independent evidence is both improper and unnecessary to determination of the Bruton issue at the trial court level.”

   4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Marsh v. Richardson · State v. Tucker

2. “"[t]he decision on how to `Brutonize' a statement, if necessary, must ordinarily be made early in the trial, when the judge is not in an ideal position to assess the strength of the government's case. A judge can decide at the outset, however, whether a codefendant statement is likely to incriminate other defendants in such a way as to create a substantial risk that the jury will consider it in deciding on the guilt of those defendants. If the incriminating references ultimately adds little to the government's case, then their exclusion does no harm, and the confrontation rights of the defendants are preserved. We do not read Bruton as guaranteeing a right of confrontation only as against testimony that proves to be vital to the prosecution's case."”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. State v. Gray · State v. Gray

3. “"Of course, this evidence does not show which defendant delivered the fatal blows. In their statements, each defendant accuses the other of committing the murder, and Lewis claims to have attempted to dissuade Hodges from beating the woman. Under Tennessee law, however, an aider or abettor in a crime is responsible for the acts of his accomplice in pursuit of the criminal purpose. See Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-109 . The jury was instructed by the trial court that 'a killing by one of a party, in the pursuit of an unlawful purpose involving the use of violence in which both are engaged, is the act of both who engaged in the unlawful purpose.’ Based on this instruction, and evidence independent of the improperly admitted statement, we think that the average jury would conclude that Hodges and Lewis were both guilty of the murder regardless of which actually dealt the fatal blows. The error in admitting the incriminating portions of Hodges’ statement as to Lewis was therefore harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.” (Footnotes and citations omitted.)”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 49 Md. App. 70 - Scott v. State