809 So. 2d 556 - State v. Smith’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 9 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[victim] has almost no memory of the events,”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 10 So. 3d 896 - State v. GRH · 236 So. 3d 644 - State v. Vail

2. “Where there is no corroborating evidence of a crime, a passage of time of such length that an accused is prevented from preparing a defense should be sufficient grounds to hold that due process is violated. Who among us can account for what they did on an unspecified day in November 1976? When someone truly believes a memory that is false there is no way for a trier of fact to distinguish the truth by the demeanor of the witness. How can we know if a memory is true? . . . . During the 1980's criminal prosecutions based on "repressed memories" sent many an innocent person to jail for crimes alleged to have been committed decades before the victim "remembered" the abuse.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. 10 So. 3d 896 - State v. GRH

3. “[Ajlthough the death penalty may not be imposed in the instant case, article 571 still applies and there is no prescriptive period for the aggravated rape charge. Because the unlimited prescriptive period for capital cases applies, the court did not err when it denied the “motion to quash indictment because of running of statute of limitations.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 6 So. 3d 982 - State v. Breaux