State v. Mellen’s Empirical Analysis
1978
Citation profile
6 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 6 later decisions — most recently November 2015
6 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on State v. Randol · State v. Lujan · Criswell v. State · Chase v. State · Tilford v. State
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 6 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“IIlt is within [the trial judge's] prerogative to ask whatever questions of witnesses as in his judgment is necessary or desirable to clarify, explain, or add. to the evidence as.it relates to the disputed issues.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“[J.]n a jury trial, a judge should maintain an attitude of neutrality and should not, either by his comments or demeanor, indicate his opinions either as to the credibility of evidence or on the disputed issues of fact. Consistent with the foregoing, the judge should and normally does exercise restraint in examining witnesses, so that he does not unduly intrude into the trial or encroach upon the functions of counsel. Notwithstanding what has just been said, the judge does have a function beyond sitting as a comparatively silent monitor of the proceedings. In order to discharge his responsibility of carrying out the above-stated objective, it is within his prerogative to ask whatever questions of witnesses as in his judgment [are] necessary or desirable to clarify, explain or add to the evidence as it relates to the disputed issues. [Citations omitted.]”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Cintron v. Milkovich“[The judge should and normally does exercise restraint in examining witnesses, so that he does not unduly intrude into the trial or encroach upon the functions of counsel.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.