State v. Stephens’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

5 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 5 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “When the trial judge refused the prosecutor's motion for a continuance on the day of trial, the prosecutor had two valid choices: (1) to proceed to trial or (2) to seek supervisory review of the denial. Instead, the prosecutor decided to "grant himself a continuance" by dismissing the charges which was not a valid choice, at least if the prosecutor intended to seek a second indictment. I believe the prosecutor's dismissal of the charges (instead of going to trial or seeking supervisory review) precluded any further prosecution. [Footnote omitted.] Justice Lemmon continued: If the defendant had sought and been denied a continuance, his only two choices would have been seeking supervisory review of the denial or going to trial. He could not have flaunted the trial judge's decision or taken over the judge's control of his docket, as the prosecutor did.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. 847 So. 2d 1198 - State v. Love