Spears v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

14 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 14 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “must constitute a blatant violation of basic principles, the harm, or potential for harm must be substantial, and the resulting error must deny the defendant fundamental due process.”

   4 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Benefield v. State · Benefield v. State

2. “[o}nce deliberations begin, discharge of a juror is warranted only in the most extreme situations where it can be shown that the removal of the juror is necessary for the integrity of the process, does not prejudice the deliberations of the rest of the panel, and does not impair the parties [sic] right to a trial by jury.”

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

3. “an error must be so prejudicial to the rights of the defendant as to make a fair trial impossible.”

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