State v. Hill’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

17 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 17 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Impeachment through prior convictions allows the fact-finder to make credibility determinations by seeing the whole person ... to judge better the truth of his testimony.... [L]ack of trustworthiness may be evinced by the defendant’s abiding and repeated contempt for laws which he is legally and morally bound to obey.... [A ]ny felony conviction is probative of a witness’s credibility, and the mere fact that a witness is a convicted felon holds impeachment value.”

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

2. “We have held, in rare cases, that the cumulative effect of trial errors can deprive a defendant of his constitutional right to a fair trial when the 'errors and indiscretions, none of which alone might have been enough to tip the scales, operate to the defendant's prejudice by producing a biased jury.’”

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