Ex Parte Dobyne’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

48 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 48 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “"Based on the foregoing, we conclude that for an indigent defendant to be entitled to expert assistance at public expense, he must show a reasonable probability that the expert would be of assistance in the defense and that the denial of expert assistance would result in a fundamentally unfair trial. To meet this standard, the indigent defendant must show, with reasonable specificity, that the expert is absolutely necessary to answer a substantial issue or question raised by the state or to support a critical element of the defense. If the indigent defendant meets this standard, then the trial court can authorize the hiring of an expert at public expense."”

   14 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Beckworth v. State · Dick v. State

2. “"In order to establish a prima facie violation of the fair cross-section requirement, the defendant must show (1) that the group alleged to be excluded is a `distinctive' group in the community; (2) that the representation of this group in venires from which juries are selected is not fair and reasonable in relation to the number of such persons in the community; and (3) that this underrepresentation is due to systematic exclusion of the group in the jury selection process."”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 776 So. 2d 819 - Travis v. State · 678 So. 2d 224 - Ex Parte Land

3. “"[S]election of a petit jury from a representative cross-section of the community is essential to a fair and impartial jury trial. Without reaching the question whether the physically disabled constitute a `distinctive group,' we think it clear that there was no violation of the fair-cross-section requirement in this instance, because physically disabled persons were selected at random from a fair-cross-section of Bibb County and were called for jury service. They were members of the jury pool from which Dobyne's venire and all other Bibb County jury venires were drawn. There was evidence presented that there was no systematic exclusion of physically disabled jurors; rather, the evidence revealed only that those physically disabled jurors excluded had themselves requested to be excluded from jury service. Under these circumstances, we conclude that Dobyne has failed to establish that the jury pool did not represent a fair cross-section of the community from which his jury was drawn. Therefore, Dobyne's argument on this issue is without merit."”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 805 So. 2d 733 - Dobyne v. State