State v. Hatfield’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

6 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 6 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““Another vice of the instruction is that it in effect shifts the burden of proof to the appellant to prove a negative, viz., that he did not have guilty knowledge. The burden is always upon the state in a criminal case to establish the guilt of the defendant by evidence that satisfies the minds of the jury beyond a reasonable doubt of his guilt. The real gravamen of the charge here was the uttering with guilty knowledge. When the uttering is proven, the weight of that circumstance is purely a question of fact for the jury. It is due to the state to add that it has cited authorities from other jurisdictions which uphold the instruction, but they are not in accord with the principle announced in our own cases to which we have referred. If the presumption arising from the possession of property recently stolen is one of fact only, the presumption arising from the uttering of a forged instrument cannot be held' to be a presumption of law. The mere fact that the inference may be stronger in one case than in the other cannot change the presumption from one of fact to one of law.””

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