80 Wash. App. 457 - State v. Sharp’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

10 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 10 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “While we are sympathetic to the Court of Appeals' desire to defer to the trial court's evaluation of the complaining witness' credibility and hence ultimately of the tape's reliability, this approach has no place in the excited utterance rule. The excited utterance exception is based on the idea that: `under certain external circumstances of physical shock, a stress of nervous excitement may be produced which stills the reflective faculties and removes their control.' The utterance of a person in such a state is believed to be `a spontaneous and sincere response to the actual sensations and perceptions already produced by the external shock,' rather than an expression based on reflection or self-interest.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Davis · 141 Wash. 2d 798 - State v. Davis

2. “a startling event or condition made while the declarant was under the stress of excitement caused by the event or condition.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Woods · State v. Williamson

3. “[t]he trial court ... is in no better position than we are to evaluate the circumstances surrounding M.J.'s utterance.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Davis · State v. Woods