State v. Barger’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate · 7 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 10 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “(1) Pure blood. The dog must be of pure blood, and of a stock characterized by acuteness of scent and power of discrimination. ... (2) Proper training. The dog must possess “acuteness of scent and power of discrimination,” and must have been accustomed and trained to track human scents.... (3) History of reliability. The dog must be shown by experience in actual cases to be reliable in tracking humans.... (4) Placed at reliable point. The dog must have been placed on the trail of the spot where the suspect was known to have been “or on a track which the circumstances indicated to have been made by him.” ... (5) Place within period of efficiency. The dog must be placed upon the trail within its period of efficiency, i.e., before rainstorms or the passage of time have weakened the scent beyond the point of reliability.”

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

2. “Ladies and Gentlemen: You have heard evidence in this trial pertaining to the use of a bloodhound, this is commonly called bloodhound evidence. I caution you that a bloodhound’s performances are not infallible, and evidence pertaining to the use of a bloodhound should not be given undue weight, and such evidence alone is not sufficient to convict. I do instruct you that this dog, Black Jack, is properly qualified under the law to trail human beings and the scent of human beings.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Richardson v. Lack