Vasquez v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

10 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. “In the instant case, the autopsy was performed by a medical examiner who accomplished such tasks repeatedly as a matter of routine. The observations and perceptions of a medical examiner are likely to be trustworthy because autopsies are performed under nonadversarial circumstances. The fact that these observations might be used against a person accused of a crime does not affect the reliability of the report. We further conclude that a medical examiner is not a police officer or other type of law enforcement personnel within the scope of rule 803(8)(B). We do not construe article 49.25 to confer law enforcement responsibilities on the medical examiner’s office. The medical examiner investigates deaths in a wide variety of circumstances, many of which are not criminal in nature. In addition, the medical examiner is not employed by a law enforcement agency. He is appointed by the commissioner’s court and serves at the pleasure of that political body.”

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