85 Mich. App. 236 - People v. Yatooma’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

12 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 12 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The most telling factor weighing for reversal is the effect of the remark on the critical issue of the trial, namely the relative credibilities of [the State’s witnesses] versus defendant. The jury, required to choose between two directly conflicting stories . . . cannot be presumed to have been unaffected by evidence that one of the witnesses had successfully passed a lie-detector test pri- or to his testimony. ... A primary rationale behind exclusion of polygraph testimony is that such evidence is not as yet sufficiently reliable, by way of scientific recognition, to risk the potentiality that the trier of fact will suspend its powers of deliberation and rely solely on the results of the test. . . . We conclude that a sufficient possibility existed in defendant’s trial that the jury may have resolved the credibility issue by reference to the polygraph testimony. We therefore must reverse the conviction. 85 Mich.App. at 241 , 271 N.W.2d at 187 (citations omitted).”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. State v. Edwards