Dillard v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis
1999
Citation profile
12
cited by 12 later decisions
1
states following
October 2010
most recently cited
12 state decisions
Relationships
Relies on Miranda v. State of Arizona Vignera · Batson v. Kentucky · Bruton v. United States · Chambers v. Mississippi · Caldwell v. Mississippi
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 12 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“In Chambers , another person, McDonald, who was not charged with the offense, had signed a sworn confession to having committed the murder. He had also made un-sworn statements to others in which he admitted being the killer. The defendant was permitted to call McDonald as a witness and to introduce the sworn, written confession. However, McDonald denied committing the murder and recanted the confession, offering a plausible explanation for having originally signed it. Under Mississippi’s "voucher" rule of evidence, the defendant was prohibited from thereafter impeaching McDonald, his own witness, ei ther by crossexamination or by use of his prior unsworn statements. Mississippi’s hearsay rule did not permit McDonald's prior inconsistent, but unsworn, statements to be used for substantive purposes, and did not contain an exception for hearsay statements against penal interest. Thus, the defendant could not rebut McDonald’s recantation of his sworn confession and was essentially prevented from presenting his best defense to the charges against him. It was held under those circumstances that "where constitutional rights directly affecting the ascertainment of guilt are implicated, the hearsay rule may not be applied mechanistically to defeat the ends of justice."”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“The focus of the closing argument in that respect was not that Appellant failed to give a statement to the police, but that the statement he gave was untruthful.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“But not every reference to a defendant's failure to testify constitutes reversible error.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
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.