Kennedy v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

36 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 38 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““The State’s burden in an attack on the validity of a chain of custody is to show the continuous whereabouts of the evidence. The mere possibility the evidence could have been tampered with or that an alteration or substitution could have been accomplished does not make the evidence inadmissible. The State is not required to exclude every possibility of tampering. However, when the evidence is fungible, ... the importance of a proper chain of custody is enhanced. The proper showing of a chain of custody must give,reasonable assurance that the property passed through the hands of the parties in an undisturbed condition.””

   5 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Bell v. State · Wrinkles v. State

2. “[AJn experiment by the jury is improper where it amounts to additional evidence supplementary to that introduced during the trial.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Williams v. State · Hape v. State

3. “[T]he trial court as trier of fact must independently determine the existence of aggravators and mitigators, weigh them, consider the recommendation of the jury, and come to a separate conclusion as to whether or not to impose the death penalty. However, when the jury's recommendation is against the penalty of death, it is to be given a special — but not controlling — role in the judge's process, because it represents factual and evaluative determinations with respect to aggravators and mitigators in favor of the defendant following a fair hearing, and because it represents the collective conscience of the community. In such cases, after determining the aggravators and mitigators and assigning each its just weight, and after assigning the recommendation of the jury its considerable weight, the trial court must then determine whether the relative weight of the proven aggravator or aggravators points so clearly to the imposition of the death penalty that the jury's recommendation must be superseded. Nonetheless, and despite the heightened role of the jury recommendation of life, ultimately it is the judge who must make the final sentencing decision.”

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