Scott v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

4 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 4 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[W]here the material issue addressed is the defendant’s intent to commit the offense charged, the relevancy of the extraneous offense derives purely from the point of view of the doctrine of chances — the instinctive recognition of that logical process which eliminates the element of innocent intent by multiplying instances of the same result until it is perceived that this element cannot explain them all. Without formulating any accurate test, and without attempting by numerous instances to secure absolute certainty of inference, the mind applies this rough and instinctive process of reasoning namely, that an unusual and abnormal element might perhaps be present in one instant [sic], but that the oftener [sic] similar instances occur with similar results, the less likely is the abnormal element likely, to be the true explanation of them.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Wiggins v. State

2. “the relevance of the extraneous transaction does not derive from any similarity it may have to the charged offense, but from its similarity to appellant’s defensive testimony.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Dabney v. State