698 So. 2d 1150 - Ex Parte Gaddy’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

41 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 41 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[t]he defendant's personal characteristics as well as his prior experience with the criminal justice system are factors to be considered in determining [the defendant's] susceptibility to police pressures.”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Jones v. State · 718 So. 2d 727 - McLeod v. State

2. “"This case is unlike Bush [v. State, 523 So.2d 538 (Ala.Cr.App.1988) (where the trial court committed plain error by specifically charging the jury that it was not entitled to disregard the fact that the trial court had admitted into evidence Bush's confession)], because in this case the judge simply charged the jury that he had made an initial determination that the confession was voluntary. Although the judge erred in doing so, he also specifically told the jury that it was to determine the issue of `weight or credibility' of the confession and that it was free to `disregard the defendant's statements which you deem to be unworthy of belief or in which you entertain a reasonable doubt as to its truth.' As this Court and the Court of Criminal Appeals have held, if the circuit court makes it clear in its instruction that the jury was `to ultimately determine whether the confession was voluntary,' then the error in instructing the jury that the court had already made a determination of voluntariness may be found to be harmless. Singleton [v. State, 465 So.2d 443 ] at 446 [(Ala.1985)]; see Aultman [ v. State, 621 So.2d 353 ] at 355 [(Ala.Cr.App.1992), cert. denied, 510 U.S. 954 , 114 S.Ct. 407 , 126 L.Ed.2d 354 (1993)], and Clark [ v. State, 621 So.2d 309 at 324 (Ala.Cr.App.1992)]. The jury was informed that it could disregard Gaddy's confession entirely if it decided to give no weight to the confession or if it found the State's witnesses to be unworthy of belief. "Again, beca”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 952 So. 2d 1149 - Gaddy v. State · 776 So. 2d 160 - Freeman v. State

3. “[W]hether a confession was voluntary rests initially with the trial court; once the trial judge makes the preliminary determination that the confession was voluntary, it then becomes admissible into evidence. Thereafter, the jury makes a determination of voluntariness as affecting the weight and credibility to be given the confession.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 725 So. 2d 1003 - Price v. State · 776 So. 2d 160 - Freeman v. State