State v. Kerr’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. “sustained his burden of showing [ ] that he was not furnished a reasonable means of verification,”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Best v. Municipality of Anchorage · Morris v. State, Department of Administration, Division of Motor Vehicles

2. “If the governmental unit was free of fault in failing to provide the defendant a means of verifying the breathalyzer result, then suppression should not follow. We stress, however, that the duty is owed by the governmental unit, not its individual agents. Thus, a finding that an individual police officer or other person administering a breathalyzer examination was free from fault, would not satisfy Serrano if it was established that the governmental entity, through antecedent negligence, had created a situation in which individual officers administering the test could not provide the defendant a means of verification. Generally, a person asserting another person’s negligence has the burden of proving it. We believe that there are some good reasons for departing from the general rule in this kind of case. First, as we pointed out in Serrano , in the typical case, the governmental agency will be in a position to furnish the defendant a basis for verification. 649 P.2d at 259 . It is not unreasonable to require the governmental agency to establish that a particular case is not typical and justifies relieving it of the duty. Second, the circumstances preventing a governmental entity from complying with Serrano would be peculiarly within the knowledge of its agents. It is therefore not unreasonable to require it to establish its freedom from fault. We therefore conclude that a governmental entity seeking to excuse its failure to preserve a breath sample, or otherwise failing to en”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Best v. Municipality of Anchorage · Ansay v. State

3. “The testimony ... demonstrates that, although improvements have been made in [perchlorate] tube technology, there is no regular method of inspection of the adapter once it has been installed in the machine; that the quality control program set up by the state to check [perchlorate] tubes prior to use, does not involve checking each tube for defects or cracks; that there was no systematic retraining of personnel at the Soldotna or Kenai Police Departments in the collection of [perchlorate] tube samples; that there is no systematic procedure set up by these agencies to check the Adaptor O-Ring for signs of wear; that the check list used by both the Soldotna and Kenai Police Departments in collecting [perchlorate] tube samples does not conform to the checklist devised for that purpose by the Department of Health and Social Services. Furthermore, there was evidence introduced that five out of seventeen officers at the Kenai Police Department failed p.c. tests ordered by the Department of Health and Social Services to determine who could collect [perchlorate] tube samples properly. Officer Dale Oldham, the supervisor-instructor at the Kenai Police Department, was himself off 32.78 percent. It was also brought out that the Kenai Police Department took no corrective action. As of the date of the hearing, the five officers whose test results were 20% above the Intoximeter reading had not been retested as required by the Department of Health and Social Services. Twenty of the cases wh”

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