Collins v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

6 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 6 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “As indicated ante in n. 4, at 912, in my view, one term conducing to wrong thinking about this problem is "to disprove." Because in common usage it means "to prove to be false,” one may believe that "to disprove” is a shorthand rendition of "burden of proof’ in the sense of "burden of producing evidence." See Ray, at 48, § 41. Indeed, the majority is under the impression that socalled “dicta in both Luck and Van Guilder support such a proposition,” opinion, at 914. However, in context of a criminal action if applied to the prosecution such belief is incorrect, for whatever confusion exists over "burden of proof’ there is no doubt whatsoever that the prosecution always has the “burden of persuasion,” that is, the "burden of persuading or convincing the trier of fact [of guilt].” Ray, at 52, § 43, 48, § 42. Moreover, the generally accepted view is that once fixed the burden of persuasion never shifts. Id., at 57-58, § 46. Thus to say the prosecution must “disprove” a defense means no more than “rebut” or "show” in the sense of countering by argument or reasoning or, at its option if deemed advisable, evidence. Ray, at 48-49, § 48. The Practice Commentary to § 2.03(d) identifies respective burdens more concisely, viz: ”[T]he defendant has the burden of producing evidence to raise a defense, but the prosecution has the final burden of persuasion to disprove it." Having just quoted the Practice Commentary and summarized the charge actually given in terms consonant with accepted pr”

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