State v. Simpson’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

11 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 11 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““The freedom of a defendant in a criminal trial to remain silent ‘unless he chooses to speak in the unfettered exercise of his own will’ is guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment and made applicable to state criminal proceedings through the Fourteenth. Malloy v. Hogan, 378 U.S. [1], at 8 [ 84 S.Ct. 1489 at 1493-94 , 12 L.Ed.2d 653 ]. And the Constitution further guarantees that no adverse inferences are to be drawn from the exercise of that privilege. Griffin v. California, 380 U.S. 609 [ 85 S.Ct. 1229 ]. Just as adverse comment on a defendant’s silence ‘cuts down on the privilege by making its assertion costly,’ id., at 614 [ 85 S.Ct. at 1233 ], the failure to limit the jurors’ speculation on the meaning of silence, when the defendant makes a timely request that a prophylactic instruction be given, exacts an impermissible toll on the full and free exercise of the privilege. Accordingly, we hold that a state trial judge has the constitutional obligation, upon proper request, to minimize the danger that the jury will give evidentiary weight to a defendant’s failure to testify.” Id. at 305, 101 S.Ct. at 1121-22 , 67 L.Ed.2d at 254 .”

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