Trapps v. United States’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

4 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 4 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “First of all, I want to compliment you on carefully following my earlier instruction that whenever you send a note, you not mention how you are divided on an issue. I have no idea on what lines you are divided and what the issues may be that are dividing you. I’m thankful that I do not know that, and my instruction not to reveal how you are divided continues unless and until you reach a unanimous verdict. In addition, the court is not interested in a decision. What I am interested in is offering help to you if you think the court can be of help to you. And when I say if the court can be of help to you, I may enlist the assistance of the attorneys for each side in trying to be of help to you. The goal here is not to force you to reach a verdict, or to suggest in any way what your verdict should be. I am proposing that it may be helpful for you in the privacy of your jury room to identify areas of agreement and areas of disagreement that you are having. If you care to make such identification, you may then wish to discuss the law and the evidence as they relate to those areas of disagreement. If you still have disagreement, I invite you but I do not require you to identify questions about the evidence or the final instructions of law regarding which you would like assistance from the Court or counsel. If you choose this option, then please list in writing, in as clear and simple language as you can fashion, where further assistance might help you in bringing about a verdict. In”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Van Dyke v. United States