Freeman v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

52 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 52 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “However, in this instance, the evidence established as a matter of law that the appellant was an “owner” of the property, as that term is statutorily defined, and that, as between her and Bourke, [the security manager] she had just as much, if not more, right to possession of the property as did Bourke. Viewing Bourke’s testimony in the most favorable light, all that it established was that because of her relationship to the Sears & Roebuck store, as a security guard, she has a possessory interest in the merchandise that was allegedly stolen, but her testimony itself, standing alone, actually negates that she had a greater right to possession of the property than did the appellant— at least until the appellant relinquished the unpaid for merchandise to Stroud [a co-conspirator].”

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

2. “If a ‘special owner’ of the property testifies without objection that he was the special owner of the property and had the greater right to possession of the property than did the accused, and the accused asserts no possessory interest in the property, then the evidence is clearly sufficient to show that he was the lawful owner of the property.”

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