586 So. 2d 978 - Flowers v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

13 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 13 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “"It generally is agreed that the defense, in disproving the accused's own guilt, may prove that another person committed the crime for which the accused is being prosecuted. This right of the criminally accused is often termed `incrimination of another' or `alibi evidence.' The problem which arises in the application of this general rule, however, is the degree of strength that must be possessed by the exculpatory evidence to render it admissible. The task of determining the weight that must be possessed by such evidence of another's guilt is a difficult one.... The appellate courts of Alabama, however, repeatedly enunciate the following guidelines as to the admissibility of such evidence as to another's guilt when offered by the accused. "The first of such limitations lies in the often repeated statement that the accused can only introduce `legal' evidence of another's guilt. This has been held to mean simply that the accused can introduce only evidence which, under normal evidentiary rules, would be admissible in a court of law. The accused cannot, for example, prove the guilt of another by the use of hearsay statements."”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 820 So. 2d 842 - Johnson v. State

2. “because it violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.”

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