Thornton v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

19 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 19 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[a] defendant's Sixth Amendment right of confrontation requires that the defen«dant be afforded an opportunity to conduct effective eross-examination of state witnesses in order to test their believa bility. However, this right is subject to reasonable limitations placed at the discretion of the trial judge. In Delaware v. Van Arsdall, the United States Supreme Court stated: It does not follow, of course, that the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment prevents a trial judge from imposing any limits on defense counsel's inquiry into the potential bias of a prosecution witness. On the contrary, trial judges retain wide latitude insofar as the Confrontation Clause is concerned to impose reasonable limits on such eross-examination based on concerns about, among other things, harassment, prejudice, confusion of the issues, the witness' safety, or interrogation that is repetitive or only marginally relevant. 475 U.S. 673, 679 , 106 S.Ct. 1431 , 89 L.Ed.2d 674 (1986).”

   5 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Smith v. State · Reed v. State