Risen v. Pierce’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

9 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 cannot say with certainty that the improper argument affected the result, we cannot say it did not. A party aggrieved by egregious argument should not be required to demonstrate prejudice, ordinarily an impossible task, for to do so would in most cases render reviewing courts powerless to correct the error.” Risen at 949 .”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Smith v. McMillan

2. “as [a] general rule, if the attention of the court is called to an improper argument and if the jury is admonished in regard to it, a reversal will not be had unless it appears that the argument was so prejudicial under the circumstances that the admonition of the trial court would not cure it.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Hayes v. Commonwealth

3. ““We have written that when counsel deliberately go outside the record in the jury argument and make statements, directly or inferentially, which are calculated to improperly influence the jury, this court will reverse the judgment....” Id. 144 S.W.2d at 522 .”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Smith v. McMillan