Mullins v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis
1997
Citation profile
18 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 18 later decisions — most recently November 2016
18 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on State v. Briley · Sanborn v. Commonwealth · Commonwealth v. Reneer · State v. Vicars · Commonwealth v. International Harvester Co.
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 18 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The General Assembly may legislate in order to protect children, and it may determine that children's rights are paramount when there is a conflict with the privilege of an adult to exclude evidence regarding the abuse, dependency or neglect of a child. KRS Chapter 620 meets the legislative purpose of safeguarding the interests of children. The statute does not interfere with any judicial function, but rather it enhances it by refusing to allow a shield to a child abuser in the form of the husband-wife privilege and thereby improves the truth-finding function of the judicial process. The exceptions provided in KRE 504(c)(2) reflect the fact that the marital privilege is considered by many to be in disfavor as a result of abuses which prevent ascertaining the truth. The privilege exists only to protect marital harmony.... The courts have approached the privilege by narrowly and strictly construing it because it has the potential for shielding the truth from the court system. Many courts have determined that when the reason supporting the privilege, marital harmony, no longer exists, then the privilege should not apply to hide the truth from the trier of fact. .... Marital harmony can hardly be a valid legal principle when the wife in question calls the police to report the alleged sexual misdeeds of her husband with a child. The marital privilege is subordinate or inferior to the right of a child to be free from sexual abuses.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“The exceptions provided in KRE 504(c)(2) reflect the fact that the marital privilege is considered by many to be in disfavor as a result of abuses which prevent ascertaining the truth.... The courts have approached the privilege by narrowly and strictly construing it because it has the potential for shielding the truth from the court system. Many courts have determined that when the reason supporting the privilege, marital harmony, no longer exists, then the privilege should not apply to hide the truth from the trier of fact.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“KRS 620.050 does not permit the. exclusion of evidence because of a marital privilege in a ease regarding an abused child.... Chapter 620 of the Kentucky Revised Statutes relates to the treatment of dependent, neglected and abused children. KRS 620.050 abrogates the professional-client/patient privilege, as well as the marital privilege, if it is used in the case of dependent, neglected or abused children.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Kays v. Commonwealth
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.