Williams v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 district · 4 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. ““Williams was first tried in March, 1961 with two other defendants, one of them his brother, for the crime of which he now stands convicted. During the course of this first trial one of the other defendants successfully moved for a severance and the jury found [Clifford] the brother of Williams guilty, but disagreed as to [Allison] Williams. [Allison] Williams thereafter, in June, 1961, was tried alone and convicted by the jury. He now appeals from this conviction. “The evidence produced by the State was to the effect that [Allison] Williams was arrested in New Jersey for the crime, ultimately waived extradition and was brought back to Delaware by automobile in the custody of two Wilmington detectives, arriving at police headquarters at about 7:30 P.M. of December 30, 1959. “In the course of the trip back to Wilmington Williams made several admissions to the detectives. He stated that he acted as lookout while the burglary was committed; that his role in the crime was a minor one; that he had been in Wilmington twice planning the crime, and that since he had not realized the owner of the ‘House of Diamonds’ carried no insurance he would do everything he could to get the jewelry back. “Prior to entering Delaware and while still in New Jersey, one of the detective suggested to Williams that while still in New Jersey it would be best to recover the diamonds if they were still in New Jersey because it would be difficult for him to leave Delaware once he had arrived there. William”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Williams v. Anderson

2. ““Next, Williams argues that the arrest of his alibi witness and the subsequent publicity of it deprived him of due process of law. We have outlined above the circumstances under which the witness was arrested and charged with perjury. On the following day counsel for Williams moved for a mistrial by reason of the arrest in the proximity of the courtroom and the news article concerning it which appeared in the Wilmington Morning News of that day. “In accordance with the practice of the Superior Court, the jury had been instructed not to read anything concerning Williams’ trial which appeared in the newspapers while it was in progress. The trial judge, following the motion for a mistrial, inquired of the members of the jury whether or not any of them had read the article in question. One only admitted having seen it. She, however, read only that portion appearing on the front page and did not pursue it on the inside pages. The objected-to portion of the article was in fact carried on an inside page of the newspaper. “At the request of Williams’ counsel the trial judge then inquired of the jury whether or not any of them were aware of an incident taking place the day before near the courtroom which had some connection with the trial of Williams. The jurors answered in the negative. “We think no prejudice resulted since the jury knew nothing of the incident nor of the newspaper article. People v. Malmenato, 14 Ill.2d 52 , 150 N.E.2d 806 , c. d. 358 U.S. 899 , 79 S.Ct. 222 , 3 L.E”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Williams v. Anderson