Herbst v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate · 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 5 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “A change of venue is proper and consistent with principles of due process when a defendant demonstrates his inability to obtain an impartial jury or a fair trial at the place of venue. A change of venue is the remedy to jury prejudice resulting from extensive, widespread inflammatory news coverage. The mere fact that a crime was publicized in the news media does not establish prejudice or require a change of venue per se. Rather, the test is “whether outside influences affecting the community’s climate of opinion as to a defendant are inherently suspect.” In order to prevail in a motion to change venue, a defendant must prove that publicity about the case is pervasive, prejudicial and inflammatory. A defendant must demonstrate an “actual, identifiable prejudice attributable to pretrial publicity on the part of the community from which members of the jury will come. When a trial court is presented with a motion to change venue, the trial judge must act as fact-finder with regard to the issue presented. Tex.Code Crim. Proc. Ann. art. 31.04. The trial judge is in a better position than this Court to resolve such issues as a result of his ability to observe the demeanor of witnesses and scrutinize their veracity. Consequently, we will affirm the trial court’s judgment absent evidence of an abuse of discretion.”

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

2. “look at the circumstances ... through the eyes of a `reasonable, similarly situated adult' and through the eyes of a `reasonable person'.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Rodriguez-Castro v. Gonzales