701 So. 2d 791 - Collins v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

7 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 7 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[t]he key distinction between the reasoning yielding the rule in Bates and Yanes v. State, 418 So.2d 1247 (Fla. 4th DCA 1982)] and the reasoning giving rise to the rule in Annaratone and Brister is that the extraneous influence was injected into the jury deliberations by the court and not by accident, as in Annaratone and Brister, or by some outside party. Because the extraneous influence was introduced into the jury's deliberations by the court and not by accident or some outside party, we hold that a presumption is raised that prejudice flows from the injection of such an extraneous influence. See Bates, 151 U.S. at 158 , 14 S.Ct. at 279 ; Holmes, 522 P.2d at 905. The action of a trial judge in giving instructions to a jury or sending evidence to a jury for consideration is substantially and qualitatively distinct from the jury's improper use of law books discovered in the jury room or an extraneous influence injected by an outside party and requires a more stringent standard.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Wilcher v. State · 60 So. 3d 187 - Rutland v. State

2. “[A] jury's verdict must be based upon the evidence and not affected by extraneous influences.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Dumas v. State · 725 So. 2d 183 - Lewis v. State

3. “[n]o safeguards were taken to keep the jurors from looking into other portions of the dictionary. At the end of the definition of "premeditation," there is a cross-reference to "malice aforethought." The definition of "malice aforethought" in Black's Law Dictionary has been held by this Court to be inconsistent with Mississippi law, and this Court has reversed a jury which relied upon the inconsistent definition. Nicolaou v. State, 534 So.2d 168, 174-75 (Miss.1988). Clearly, sending to the jury room a law dictionary with a cross-reference to a definition of "malice aforethought" which is contrary to Mississippi law raises not just a possibility, but the probability, that the cross-reference caught the eye of the jury and led them to that incompatible definition.”

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