64 Md. App. 625 - Smith v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

32 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 32 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““The effect of the communication here was egregious. It turned the judge from an impartial arbiter, bound to decide the case on the facts presented in open court, into an investigator for the prosecution. In short, our adversarial system was abandoned in favor of an inquisitorial one. The judge took it upon himself, through his clerk, to unearth information about a case he was to try. This eliminated any vestige of impartiality.””

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. 72 Md. App. 605 - Wiseman v. State · In Re Elrich S.

2. ““In the final analysis, the question of whether to review an issue not raised and decided below is discretionary with the appellate court____ The Court of Appeals has observed that this discretion should be exercised in favor of review when the ‘unobjected to error [is] compelling, extraordinary, exceptional or fundamental to assure the defendant a fair trial.’ ____We hold that this is such a case. For reasons we shall now discuss, Smith was denied the right to have her guilt or innocence of probation violation decided by an impartial tribunal. That right was fundamental to assure her a fair trial and its denial, as shown by the record, was both extraordinary and exceptional.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 72 Md. App. 605 - Wiseman v. State