State v. McKinney’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

12 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 12 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The appellant argues that the chain of custody of the blood sample was never established and that it was not proved that the sample tested was the one taken from him. The evidence shows otherwise. The investigating officer testified that the nurse took the blood sample at his direction and under his supervision at about 4:30 p.m. on May 22nd and that he saw her seal the vial of blood in a box. He said that he took the box to the toxicology lab at the University of Tennessee Hospital and gave it to a technician who labeled it and put it in the refrigerator. The toxicologist at the Tennessee Crime Laboratory who analyzed the blood testified that a hospital employee delivered the sample to him at 3:00 p.m. on May 30, 1978. Although there was testimony that an eight-day lapse between receipt of a sample at the toxicology lab and delivery to the crime lab was unusual, there was no evidence that the sample tested was not the sampe [sic] drawn from the appellant after the accident. We find that, under Ritter v. State, [3 Tenn.Cr.App. 372] 462 S.W.2d 247, 249-250 (1970), the trial court did not abuse its discretion in holding that the chain of custody was properly established.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 573 So. 2d 223 - Wells v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co.