Fletcher v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

21 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 21 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The trial court’s ruling is not, however, unreviewable. Where the appellate court can say with confidence that by no reasonable perception of common experience can it be concluded that proffered evidence has a tendency to make the existence of a fact of consequence more or less probable than it would otherwise be, then it can be said the trial court abused its discretion to admit that evidence. Moreover, when it is clear to the appellate court that what was perceived by the trial court as common experience is really no more than the operation of a common prejudice, not borne out in reason, the trial court has abused its discretion. In either event the appellate court should recognize that the trial court erred to admit the proffered evidence, and proceed to determine harmfulness under Tex.RApp.P. 81(b)(2). Whether objeeted-to evidence of “other crimes, wrongs, or acts” has relevance apart from character conformity, as required by rule 404(b) [Texas Rules of Criminal Evidence] is also a question for the trial court. The trial judge must conclude that the evidence tends in logic and common experience to serve some purpose other than character conformity to make the existence of a fact of consequence more or less probable than it would be without the evidence.”

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

2. “We cannot accept appellant’s hyper-technical distinction between directly kicking a child in the back and kicking an infant’s back through a cloth carrier. In fact, we fail to see any difference in this situation and in a child sustaining a blow through its clothing. Were we to accept appellant’s contention that there was no offense because of the interposition of a layer of fabric, a variety of senseless results would follow.”

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