Barnhill v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

9 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 9 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Unlike the complaining witness’ testimony in Aguilar , Williamson’s testimony concerned no contested issues and explained routine police conduct. His testimony (concerning his investigation at the site and the mechanical aspects of a flow-meter) which duplicates other witnesses’ testimony could be characterized as non-essential background which contains nothing to incriminate appellant. While the trial court abused its discretion in exempting Williamson from the rule without requiring the State to meet the criteria imposed by Rule 613, we find no reversible error because of the nature of the evidence which was improperly introduced through Williamson’s testimony. Appellant was not harmed by the trial court’s error.”

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

2. “The ultimate test when a witness who has violated the rule has been allowed to testify is whether or not there has been injury to the defendant. Two relevant criteria are: 1) did the witness actually hear the testimony of the other witness, and 2) did the witness’ testimony contradict the testimony of the witness that he allegedly heard.”

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