State v. Bertram’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

34 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 34 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[a]n examination of Rhode Island case law * * * reveals that this [C]ourt has seldom, if ever, afforded criminal or civil defendants greater protection under article 1, section 13, of our State Constitution than has been afforded to criminal or civil defendants under the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Sendra Beauregard · Rhode Island Grand Jury v. Doe

2. ““If we were to proscribe the introduction of photographs of murder victims whenever they tended to be prejudicial in any way whatsoever, few, if any, such photographs would be allowed into evidence, because, indeed, it taxes this court’s imagination to conceive of an instance wherein a photographic depiction of the grim face of death would play pleasingly on the eye of a beholder.””

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

3. “like the United States Supreme Court, [this Court] has traditionally distinguished between physical evidence and testimonial evidence when undertaking a self-incrimination analysis under article 1, section 13.”

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