Brown v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

35 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 35 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[W]here the error denies a constitutional right, ... reversal is required unless the error is found to be harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. However, we have never held that the standard of harmless beyond a reasonable doubt applies merely because a constitutional right is involved. While it is true that a constitutional right, the right to the presumption of innocence, is involved here, we believe that the instructions given by the judge both before the trial and before the jury's deliberations were sufficient to ensure that the defendant enjoyed that right and therefore no constitutional right was denied. ... We are convinced that the court's instructions prevented the error from rising to the level of plain error.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Adams v. State · Adams v. State

2. “there is reason to believe that an impartial trial cannot be had.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Jerrel v. State · Mallott v. State

3. “Lawyers may display a wide spectrum of ability and still have their performance fall within the range of competence displayed by one of ordinary training and skill in the criminal law. It is only when the ability is below the nadir of that range that we would hold it to constitute a deprivation of effective assistance of counsel.”

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