McKinney v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 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 1 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Ordinarily, when a defendant is not permitted to testify on direct examination regarding his prior criminal record and the prior record is elicited during cross-examination, the defendant sustains a double blow to his credibility-aside from the obvious effect of the prior conviction, defendant’s credibility is hurt because the jury is left with the impression that the defendant tried to hide his criminal record and was not being entirely truthful. Allowing the defendant to testify on direct examination, rather than detracting from his credibility, may actually bolster his credibility because the jury may believe that the defendant is being completely open and straightforward and worthy of belief. Defendant’s counsel surely was not attempting in the present case to attack defendant’s veracity as a witness. Consequently, he should not be accused technically of impeaching his own witness.... Since defendant was virtually assured of being cross-examined about his prior record, defendant’s counsel should have been allowed to question defendant on direct examination regarding his crimi nal record in order to enhance his credibility. Defendant had everything to gain and nothing to lose.”

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