Wright v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

15 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 15 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[Prosecutor]: It is a reasonable inference from the contact that happened and the words that could have been spoke, they’ve got their own words, but you get the general impression, this man was getting into the Officer’s face, encroaching on his space, to get back in that car to get to those guns. Now, what would have happened if he had gotten to those guns, an armed robber getting back into his car to get two firearms when the police are intent on taking him to jail. [Defense Counsel]: Your Honor, I’m going to have to object to that. THE COURT: Is that a reasonable deduction from the evidence? [Prosecutor]: It is a reasonable deduction from the evidence, Your Honor, and common sense tells you what would happen thereafter. [Defense Counsel]: Object to the sidebar comments. THE COURT: Sustained. [Defense Counsel]: Please admonish the Jury to disregard that. THE COURT: Disregard the sidebar comments. [Defense Counsel]: Ask for a mistrial. THE COURT: Denied.”

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

2. ““It must be remembered that the only reason for calling a reputation witness is to give the jury knowledge of someone’s moral character, which knowledge has been gained by members of the community in which he lives and acts.... This appellant’s community was in Dallas; he lived there and had been reared there. Yet the prosecuting attorneys called a reputation witness who never had worked in Dallas and who never had talked about the appellant to anyone other than themselves..., they called Officer Gonzales because he had once ‘stopped’ the appellant. That is, they were not looking in good faith for witnesses who knew the appellant’s reputation; they were looking for witnesses who knew about unadjudicated offenses the appellant had committed.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. Johnson v. State

3. ““I didn’t hear [defense counsel] say, you are picking on this poor retarded boy, why don’t you come in and explain it to us why you say that? Did you hear that? No, no, no. No, he just said no question. Let’s get that man off of the stand. Well that ought to tell you something. * * * [5] [Defense counsel] did say to you that when the State Trooper was called up here from San Antonio that [another prosecutor] did it—like we just pulled somebody out of San Antonio and told them to come up here and say the man’s reputation is bad but that same man told you that he knew him and he met him in San Antonio, not in Dallas, and there were no questions beyond that so you can think about that for a minute. You can put all these things together ...””

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