State v. Shafer’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. “No person shall be incompetent to testify as a witness in any criminal cause or prosecution by reason of being the person on trial or examination, or by reason of being the husband or wife of the accused, but any such facts may be shown for the purpose of affecting the credibility of such witness; provided, that no person on trial or examination, nor wife or husband of such person, shall be required to testify, but any such person may, at the option of the defendant testify in his behalf, or on behalf of a codefendant, and shall be liable to cross-examination, as to any matter referred to in his examination in chief, and may be contradicted and impeached as any other witness in the case; provided, that in no case shall husband or wife, when testifying under the provisions of this section for a defendant, be permitted to disclose confidential communications had or made between them in the relation of such husband and wife.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. State v. Alexander

2. “[WJhere a statute or law has received a given construction by a court of last resort, the ... parties who have acted in conformity with, and in reliance upon, such construction ..., are not in any wise impaired ... by reason of a change in the construction of the same statute made by a subsequent decision of the court of last resort ... and the effect of the change in judicial construction is that it operates prospectively ... in the same manner as though the statute or law had been amended by the Legislature. [Emphasis added.]”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Sumners v. Sumners

3. “The reasons for prospective application of [State v. Euell, 583 S.W.2d 173 (Mo. banc 1979) ] are quite simple. First, it is clear from the quoted language, Euell was not intended to have retrospective application, for as noted, the court announced that [State v. Frazier, 55S.W.2d 590 (Mo.App.1977) ] “should no longer be followed,” and this could only refer to cases tried after June 29, 1979.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Sumners v. Sumners