State v. Sams’s Empirical Analysis
1990
Citation profile
10 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 10 later decisions — most recently June 2020
10 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on In re Oliver · Richmond Newspapers, Inc. v. Virginia · Estes v. Texas · Waller v. Georgia · Press-Enterprise Company v. Superior Court of California Riverside County
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.
“serves as a guarantee that the accused will be “fairly dealt with and not unjustly condemned.” The presence of citizens in the courtroom safeguards the accused against (a) the court being used as an instrument of persecution, (b) the abuse of judicial power and discretion, and (c) potentially perjurious and abusive testimony. In addition, the public’s presence may induce unknown witnesses to come forward with evidence relevant to the issues in controversy or facts which can be used to impeach a witness, encourage the trial participants to perform their respective duties conscientiously, and afford the citizens in the community an opportunity to observe the criminal justice system in progress, determine whether the system is functioning adequately, and express these findings in the form of public opinion.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. State v. Jordan“A complete closure has the effect of excluding everyone from the courtroom with the exception of the parties, the attorneys, court personnel, and the witnesses. A complete closure may be for the entire trial or proceeding, or a portion of the proceedings such as the testimony of a particular witness. A partial closure results in the exclusion of certain members of the public while other members of the public are permitted to remain in the courtroom.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.