State v. Moore’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

19 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 19 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “a particular strat[a]gem or method [may have] such unusual particularities that reasonable men can consider that it would not likely be employed by different persons. Many men commit murder, but Jack the Ripper used his knife in a manner so peculiar that when his crimes were viewed together there could be little doubt that they were committed by the same man. Merely the fact, however, that a series of such crimes may be committed with a knife will not render them unusual enough to identify the perpetrator of one as the perpetrator of the others.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. State of Tennessee v. Henry Lee Jones

2. “A common scheme or plan is not found merely because the similarities of the offenses outweigh the differences. Rather, the trial court must find that a distinct design or unique method was used in committing the offenses before an inference of identity may properly arise.”

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