Townsend v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

14 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. “When determining whether a jury verdict was surely unattributable to an erroneous admission of evidence, the reviewing court considers the manner in which the evidence was presented, whether it was highly persuasive, whether it was used in closing argument, and whether it was effectively countered by the defendant. “[Overwhelming evidence of guilt is a factor, often a very important one, in determining whether, beyond a reasonable doubt, the error has no impact on the verdict.” But the court cannot focus on the evidence of guilt alone.”

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

2. “When determining whether the jury’s verdict was surely unattributable to an error, we examine the record as a whole. In doing so, we consider the manner in which the evidence was presented, whether the evidence was highly persuasive, whether it was used in closing argument, and whether it was effectively countered by the defense.”

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

3. “the verdict was surely unattributable to the error.”

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