State v. Davis’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

83 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 83 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “When a movant claims ineffective assistance of counsel for failure to locate and present expert witnesses, he must show that such experts existed at the time of trial, that they could have been located through reasonable investigation, and that the testimony of these witnesses would have benefited movant's defense.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Colbert · Collings v. State

2. “1) Extraction. DNA is chemically extracted from the sample and purified. 21 Fragmentation. The extracted DNA is then cut into fragments by restricting enzymes which, depending upon the enzyme selected, cut the DNA at specific points along the DNA chain. Because the sequential characteristics of DNA vary from person to person, everyone’s DNA gets cut up differently and the fragments will have different sizes. 3) Gel Electrophoresis. The DNA fragments are then separated by size. The fragments are placed in an agarose gel, to which an electrical current is applied. Because DNA has a natural negative charge, and because opposite electrical charges attract, the fragments move away from the negatively charged pole and mi grate toward the positive pole. The larger DNA fragments move more slowly through the gel and thus a shorter distance than the smaller fragments of DNA. The end result is that the fragments are sorted by size, from the largest to the smallest, into an orderly pattern of fragments along parallel lines. 4) Southern Blotting. The DNA band pattern of fragments in the gel is then transferred and permanently affixed onto a nylon membrane, in exactly the same positions as the fragments occupied in the gel. During this process, the double-stranded DNA fragments are chemically split apart — “unzipped” from one another — at their base pairings. 5) Hybridization. To identify the location of specific regions of DNA, radioactive probes are applied to the nylon membrane. A probe”

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

3. “Most human cells contain a nucleus which in turn contains 46 chromosomes that arrange themselves in pairs. Tightly coiled and packaged within these chromosomes are DNA strands consisting of two strands of nucleotides running in opposite directions. The double helix strands of DNA are connected by hydrogen bonds between bases. There are only four varieties of bases (Adenine, Thymine, Guanine, and Cytosine, which are more commonly referred to as A, T, G, C) and these form only two varieties of pairs (A and T, G and C).”

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