Butler v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

26 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 26 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[Ujnless the omission deprived the defendant of a fair trial, there was no constitutional violation requiring that the verdict be set aside; and absent a constitutional violation, there was no breach of the prosecutor’s constitutional duty to disclose.... The mere possibility that an item of undisclosed information might have helped the defense, or might have affected the outcome of the trial, does not establish “materiality” in the constitutional sense. The Court stated that the test for materiality imposes a higher burden on the defendant than the harmless error standard. In determining materiality, the omission must be “evaluated in the context of the entire record,” and constitutional error is committed only “if .the omitted evidence creates a reasonable doubt that did not otherwise exist.””

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. McGee v. State · Cuesta v. State

2. “(1) suppression of the evidence by the prosecution after a request by the defense; (2) the evidences’ favorable character for the defense; and (3) the materiality of the evidence.”

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

3. “create[d] a reasonable doubt about the defendant's guilt that did not otherwise exist.”

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