Brasher v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

5 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 5 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““If a person willfully swears falsely to a belief in the existence of a fact which he knows does not exist he is as guilty of perjury as if he had sworn directly to the existence of a fact which he knew did not exist.” ... In every case perjury must be knowingly false, and in every case the defendant’s actual state of mind cannot be directly proved. It is for the jury to say in every case of perjury whether the defendant believed the truth of his testimony when he gave it.”

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

2. “Where the statement which is the basis of the accusation is a matter of construction, or deduction from given facts, the fact that it is erroneous, or is not a correct construction, or is not a logical deduction from all the facts, cannot constitute it perjury or false swearing. A witness cannot be guilty of perjury in giving his opinion as to the legal effect of facts about which he is required to testify.”

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