Huffman v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate · 79 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 81 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “1. the circumstances of the capital offense, including the defendant's state of mind and whether he or she was working alone or with other parties; 2. the calculated nature of the defendant's acts; 3. the forethought and deliberateness exhibited by the crime's execution; 4. the existence of a prior criminal record, and the severity of the prior crimes; 5. the defendant's age and personal circumstances at the time of the offense; 6. whether the defendant was acting under duress or the domination of another at the time of the commission of the offense; 7. psychiatric evidence; and 8. character evidence.”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Black v. State · Rosales v. State

2. “The videotape complained of herein has been reviewed by this Court and contains no audio portion, only video, i.e., motion pictures. Motion pictures are just a collection of photographs and the rules surrounding admission are the same as those for still photographs. Housewright v. State, 154 Tex.Cr.R. 101 , 225 S.W.2d 417 (1949). Motion pictures are admissible when they are properly authenticated, relevant to an issue, and not violative of the rules of evidence for the admissibility of photographs. Lopez v. State, 630 S.W.2d 936 (Tex.Cr.App.1982). When a verbal description of a scene is admissible, a photograph or video recording of the scene would also be admissible. Wilkerson v. State, 726 S.W.2d 542, 547 (Tex.Cr.App.1986); see Burdine v. State, 719 S.W.2d 309, 316 (Tex.Cr.App.1986). The trial judge has broad discretion in admitting video recordings and his action will not be disturbed absent an abuse of that discretion. See Burdine, 719 S.W.2d at 316 .”

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

3. “Videotapes are a simultaneous audio and visual recording of events. As such, a predicate is required to establish their accuracy and reliability. ⅜ ⅜ ⅝ ⅜ ⅜ ⅜ ... Although videotapes are motion pictures as well as sound recordings, we now hold that the Edwards predicate applies to videotapes. Moreover, because of the dual aspect of videotapes they convey a greater indicia of reliability than either film or sound tapes standing alone and at least some of the Edwards elements may also be inferred from the testimony.”

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