Spain v. Rakestraw’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

11 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 11 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““There was a time when the personal knowledge and opinion of a witness concerning the character of one with whom he was acquainted were regarded as proper evidence, but in Reg. v. James Rowton, 10 Cox Cr. Cas. [Eng.] 25, this practice was disapproved in England. In this country the weight of authority in such cases is that the question should be restricted to general reputation concerning the particular quality involved in the issue, and this is the practice approved in The State v. Johnson, 40 Kan. 266 , 19 Pac. 749 . A history of the judicial consideration of this subject is given in volume 2 of Wigmore on Evidence, sections 1605 to 1625, inclusive, and in volume 3 of the same work, sections 1980 to 1986, inclusive. (See, also, Stephen’s Hist. Crim. Law of Eng., pp. 449, 450.) The object sought by such testimony, whatever the form of the question, is to prove character (The State v. Spangler, 64 Kan. 661 , 68 Pac. 39 ), but the proper method is, it seems, to arrive at this by showing the general reputation of the person rather than the personal knowledge of the witness.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. State v. Gray