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← 61 NC 146 - State v. . Sears

State v. . Sears’s Empirical Analysis

1867

Citation profile

8
cited by 8 later decisions
1
states following
January 1983
most recently cited

6 state decisions

How this case has been cited

Cited by 8 later decisions — most recently January 1983

6 state decisions

301867187018801890190019101920193019401950196019701980decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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

  1. “His Honor had charged the jury that `they must be satisfied, fully satisfied, etc.' `Fully satisfied' is at least as favorable for the defendant as `satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt.' For the latter implies that there may be a conviction, although there may be ever so many doubts other than reasonable. But fully satisfied is to the exclusion of all doubts, reasonable or other. It is said that it is difficult for the jury to understand what `fully satisfied' means. It is at least as difficult for them to understand what `reasonable doubt' means. The error consists in supposing that any particular formula of words is necessary, or that any (289) have been prescribed. It is a great first principle, founded in justice as well as in humanity, that the innocent shall in no case be punished. It follows that before any one can be punished there must be a certainty of his guilt.”
    1 later decision quote this exact passage
    e.g. State v. . Charles
  2. “they must be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt,”
    1 later decision quote this exact passage
    e.g. State v. . Charles

How this case has been treated — in progress

Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.