State v. Smith’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

28 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 28 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “1. The use of coercive tactics to obtain the initial, illegal confession and the causal connection between the illegal conduct and the challenged, subsequent confession; 2. The temporal proximity of the prior and subsequent confessions; 3. The reading and explanation of Miranda rights to the defendant before the subsequent confession; 4. The circumstances occurring after the arrest and continuing up until the making of the subsequent confession including, but not limited to, the length of the detention and the deprivation of food, rest, and bathroom facilities; 5. The coerciveness of the atmosphere in which any questioning took place including, but not limited to, the place where the questioning occurred, the identity of the interrogators, the form of the questions, and the repeated or prolonged nature of the questioning; 6. The presence of intervening factors including, but not limited to, consultations with counsel or family members, or the opportunity to consult with counsel, if desired; 7. The psychological effect of having already confessed, and whether the defendant was advised that the prior confession may not be admissible at trial; 8. Whether the defendant initiated the conversation that led to the subsequent confession; and 9. The defendant’s sobriety, education, intelligence level, and experience with the law, as such factors relate to the defendant’s ability to understand the administered Miranda rights.”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. State v. Dailey · State v. Goode

2. “extraction of an illegal, unwarned confession from a defendant raises a rebut-table presumption that a subsequent confession, even if preceded by proper Miranda warnings, is tainted by the initial illegality. That presumption may be overcome by the prosecution, however, if the State can establish “that the taint is so attenuated as to justify admission of the subsequent confession.””

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. State v. Dailey · State of Tennessee v. David Hooper Climer, Jr.

3. “Of course, after an accused has once let the cat out of the bag by confessing, no matter what the inducement, he is never thereafter free of the psychological and practical disadvantages of having confessed. He can never get the cat back in the bag. The secret is out for good. In such a sense, a later confession always may be looked upon as fruit of the first. But this Court has never gone so far as to hold that making a confession under circumstances which preclude its use, perpetually disables the confessor from making a usable one after those conditions have been removed.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Munn · State v. Crump