82 Md. App. 679 - Hunter v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

29 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 29 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[T]he exercise of this right does not imply a consciousness of guilt. In seeking legal advice or representation, the person may well believe himself capable of some tortious or criminal conduct. But he may just as well believe himself entirely innocent or only partly culpable, or he simply may not know whether his acts or omissions are in violation of law. And if he has some pre-formed belief as to his culpability or innocence, that belief may turn out to be unfounded. Indeed, common human experience would suggest that, absent some special circumstance not evident here, the most likely purpose for seeking legal advice or representation is to find out what one’s status and exposure may be. If there is a rational inference to be drawn from the seeking of such advice or representation therefore, it cannot be more than that — an uncertainty. To draw an inference of consciousness of guilt from the seeking of such advice, then, is both illogical and unwarranted; the fact to be inferred — the consciousness of guilt — is not made more probable (or less probable) from the mere seeking of legal advice or representation, and so evidence of the predicate fact is simply irrelevant. On pure evidentiary grounds, it is inadmissible.”

   5 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 124 Md. App. 331 - Casey v. State · State v. Dixon

2. ““This raises the question whether the obtention or attempted obtention of a lawyer or legal advice prior to that point can properly be regarded as the exercise of a right under the Sixth Amendment for purposes of a Griffin analysis. The harm, of course, occurs at trial, when the evidence is elicited or the comment is made, and surely at that point, the Sixth Amendment right has attached. But as the harm consists of penalizing the earlier exercise of a Constitutional right, one must look back to the event purporting to constitute the exercise of that right. If in fact, or in law, it does not constitute the exercise of a Constitutional right, the whole penalty’ analysis collapses.” 82 Md. App. at 690 .”

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

3. “[t]he cognizable error came not during the [officer’s] testimony ... but on the cross-examination of [the defendant]. When the prosecutor not only returned to that testimony but demanded that appellant explain why he called his lawyer just minutes after involvement in a serious accident, an objection was made, and it was overruled. It was that question and answer, more than the statements of ... [the officer], that formed the foundation of the prosecutor’s consciousness of guilt argument in this case. The seeds of the argument were in the admission that the call was made to see if the lawyer would ‘defend me.’”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 85 Md. App. 54 - Waddell v. State