Howard v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

27 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 27 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “There are essentially three types of contact between the police and private citizens which have received attention in the reported cases: (1) A generalized request for information, for example, questions put to bystanders during an on-the-scene investigation of a crime. (2) An investigatory stop, supported by articula-ble suspicion that a person has committed or is about to commit a crime. (3) Finally, an arrest, based upon facts and circumstances which would lead a prudent person to believe that a crime had been committed and that the person arrested had committed it.... An inquiry of someone at the scene is not necessarily a fourth amendment seizure. An investigatory stop and an arrest are fourth amendment seizures. [Citations omitted.]”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Brown v. State · Pooley v. State

2. “Recognizing the uncertainties that still exist in the law regarding distinguishing between lawful stops and custodial arrest, we believe the following factors serve to distinguish them. First, the court must consider the purpose for the stop and, specifically, the kind of criminal activity being investigated.... Second, the stop must be for a limited and specific inquiry, i.e., the police must be diligently pursuing a means of investigation which is soon likely to resolve the matter one way or the other. Once the inquiry is completed the person detained must be freed or arrested.... Third, the stop must be of brief duration; the exact length will depend in part upon what is learned by the police relating to their initial suspicions. As one court pointed out: The results of the initial stop may arouse further suspicion or may dispel the questions in the officer’s mind. If the latter is the case, the stop may go no further and the detained individual must be free to go. If, on the contrary, the officer’s suspicions are confirmed or are further aroused, the stop may be prolonged and the scope enlarged as required by the circumstances. State v. Watson, 165 Conn. 577 , 345 A.2d 532, 537 (1973). Fourth, the stop must not require the person stopped to travel an appreciable distance. Fifth, the force used in effectuating the stop must be proportional to the risk reasonably foreseen by the officer at the time he makes the stop.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. Pooley v. State

3. “We do not suggest that there is a litmus paper test for distinguishing a consensual encounter from a seizure or for determining when a seizure exceeds the bounds of an investigative stop. Even in the discrete category of airport encounters, there will be endless variations in the facts and circumstances, so much variation that it is unlikely that the courts can reduce to a sentence or a paragraph a rule that will provide unarguable answer to the question whether there has been an unreasonable search and seizure in violation of the Fourth Amendment.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. Pooley v. State