66 Md. App. 100 - White v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

30 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 30 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Arguing law includes stating, quoting, discussing, or commenting upon a legal proposition, principle, rule or statute. Quoting the Supreme Court's definition of reasonable doubt as reported in one of its opinions is arguing the law. Before 1980 when the jury's law-judging function was virtually unrestricted, arguing law, including quoting from case-law was entirely proper and necessary because it was addressed to the judge of the law. When that function was redefined and accordingly restricted, the propriety, indeed the need, for such arguments was correspondingly diminished. In fact, the jury's involvement in some "aspects of law" was specifically and unequivocally removed. One such aspect is the burden of proof. The burden of proof, specifically enumerated in Stevenson , is one of the "aspects of law" which is entrusted to the judge, and not the jury, whether there is a dispute as to the law of the crime or not. As such, the judge alone has responsibility for determining and instructing on that issue and the instructions thus given are binding on jury and counsel alike. . . . Accordingly, to hold that counsel are permitted to read caselaw regarding the definition of reasonable doubt to a jury, whose only function is to determine the facts and, if appropriate, the law of the case, would be to permit the usurpation of the court's function and to again place a broader law-judging function in the jury. This, we cannot and will not do.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 186 Md. App. 204 - Drake and Charles v. State · 186 Md. App. 570 - Drake v. State

2. “that where there is no dispute as to the law, counsel will not be permitted to argue law even where the argument is "consistent" with the court's instructions.. . . To allow counsel to embellish the trial court's instructions is fraught with the danger that the trial judge's binding instructions will be manipulated by counsel, resulting in the jury applying law different than that given by the trial court.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 186 Md. App. 204 - Drake and Charles v. State · 186 Md. App. 570 - Drake v. State

3. “Before this Court, appellant asserts that since the State’s rebuttal expert was allowed to be present in the courtroom, during testimony, the sequestration order was violated and the witness should not have been allowed to testify. Appellant does not raise any discovery violation grounds as asserted at trial. Appellant has not preserved the sequestration issue for appeal because the objection was not renewed when Dr. Dickman was actually called and no continuing objection was noted originally. We shall not reach the issue since appellant does not argue before us the issue he preserved and waived the issue he argues. [18]”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 88 Md. App. 512 - Wheeler v. State