76 Wis. 2d 191 - Angus v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

13 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 13 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““In both of these cases, the defense theory was based upon logical reasoning for a motive to be untruthful and the evidence of the prior acts was directly related to the motive. For example, in DeLawder it would have been impossible to prove the prosecutrix’s motive for untruthfulness without showing she had previously had sexual intercourse and became pregnant. In the present case, however, the complainant’s prior sexual conduct is not related to the alleged motive for untruthfulness, animosity toward the defendant, and therefore, the Davis and DeLawder cases are clearly distinguishable. “Even if the court could find some probative value in the evidence of these prior acts, it is certainly clear that whatever probative value that evidence might have is outweighed by the great risk of prejudice this sort of inflammatory evidence might inject into the case. Under such circumstances the evidence may be properly excluded within the discretion of the trial judge. Sec. 204.03, Stats.; Jones (George Michael) v. State, 70 Wis. 2d 41, 54 , 233 N.W.2d 430, 437 (1975). “We conclude that the trial court properly excluded the evidence of prior sexual acts .... The evidence was not relevant to the issues of the case or credibility. The defendant was not denied the right to present his theory for his daughter’s alleged untruthfulness, that theory being animosity toward him. He was only prevented from introducing irrelevant and prejudicial evidence.” Id. at 201.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 115 Wis. 2d 48 - State v. Droste