Zawacki v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

7 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 7 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “(a) In a prosecution for a sex crime, evidence of the past sexual conduct of a victim or witness may not be admitted, except: (1) evidence of the victim's or of a witness's past sexual conduct with the defendant; (2) evidence which shows that some person other than the defendant committed the act upon which the prosecution is founded; (3) evidence that the victim's pregnancy at the time of trial was not caused by the defendant; or (4) evidence of conviction for a crime to impeach under Rule 609. (b) If a party proposes to offer evidence under this rule, the following procedure must be followed: (1) A written motion must be filed at least ten days before trial describing the evidence. For good cause, a party may file such motion less than ten days before trial. (2) The court shall conduct a hearing and issue an order stating what evidence may be introduced and the nature of the questions to be permitted. (c) If the state acknowledges that the victim's pregnancy is not due to the conduct of the defendant, the court may instruct the jury accordingly, in which case other evidence concerning the pregnancy may not be admitted. The rule exists because an inquiry into a victim's prior sexual activity is sufficiently problematic that it should not be permitted to become a focus of the defense. Rule 412 is intended to prevent the victim from being put on trial, to protect the victim against surprise, harassment, and unnecessary invasion of privacy, and, importantly, to remove obstacles”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. Williams v. State