State v. Robertson’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 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 3 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “While the statute allows persons other than public prosecutors to bring criminal actions in the name of the state, the concept of “primary” responsibility required by our state’s constitution does not mean “exclusive” responsibility. Accordingly, city attorneys can have some responsibility for the prosecution of crimes in the name of the state as long as public prosecutors continue to have the “primary” responsibility. Public prosecutors—the attorney general and county and district attorneys—have the primary responsibility over the system as a whole for prosecuting criminal actions in the name of the state. This is true both quantitatively, since public prosecutors have the responsibility to prosecute all cases in the name of the state compared to city attorneys who have no compulsory duty to prosecute any actions in the name of the state, and qualitatively, since city attorneys are only authorized to prosecute misdemeanors. The first facet of the constitutional mandate, that of statewide “primary responsibility,” is thus fulfilled by public prosecutors. City attorneys are, however, authorized to prosecute certain cases in the name of the state, relieving the duty, but not the authority, of the county and district attorneys and the attorney general to conduct the prosecution. Even so, prosecutions by city attorneys are subject to the common law authority of the attorney general to intervene in the interest of the public. In this way, every prosecution in the name of the state”

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