Kitchens v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

7 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 7 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Evidence of [the victim’s] carefree attitude was at least marginally relevant to Kitchens’ consent defense and tended to undermine [the victim’s] credibility, since [the victim’s] apparent lack of fear might indicate that in actuality she had no reason to fear Kitchens — that Kitchens had never threatened her. Because we find nothing in the record to support the conclusion that this evidence had any potential for prejudice that might have outweighed its probative value, we conclude that the trial court erred in excluding it.[ 9 ]”

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

2. “Evaluation of personal demeanor is an inherent part of ordinary social interaction and, in most situations, entails little more than commonsense judgment. Hence, if demeanor is relevant, there is ordinarily nothing impermissible in asking a witness to describe the demeanor of a person with whom the witness has spoken. The trial court erred in concluding that the proposed inquiry called for speculative opinion evidence.[ 8 ]”

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