Denson v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 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 3 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Surprisingly, the statutes governing disqualification do not expressly prohibit attorneys of parties involved in litigation from sitting on juries who will try the particular case. However, section 40.013(3), Florida Statutes (1991) states that “No person interested in any issue to be tried therein shall be a juror in any cause.” Certainly, the attorney representing the state is “interested in any issue to be tried.” Each assistant state attorney upon appointment is required to take an oath that she will faithfully perform the duties of assistant state attorney, section 27.181(2), Florida Statutes (1991), including the prosecution of all criminal informations and indictments. Thus, they are all attorneys for the state, the party in interest in the prosecution of the [defendant]. Each assistant state attorney serves at the pleasure of the elected state attorney in whose name all informations are filed, including the one in this case. The state attorney has the power to hire, fire, and set the salary of each assistant. This is sufficient interest to warrant disqualification. [[Image here]] While the assistant state attorney here stated that she could be a fair juror, that assurance is not determinative of the question, but the trial court must look at all of the evidence before it. Here, the prospective juror was the supervisor of the assistant state attorney trying the case, and one of her duties was to evaluate her performance. Also, as noted above, she was an employee at wil”

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