Connor v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

26 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 26 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““The right of self-defense is but the right of necessity. A man may not slay another in defense of himself unless necessary to secure his -own safety. It is true that, when attacked by another feloniously, he is not obliged to retreat, for this often would be to increase his peril. Still the apparent necessity is the measure of his right to slay the assailant. Where a man is attacked in his home, and in a few other like cases, the instruction referred to has been given; but there was nothing in this case requiring any other rule than that laid down in the instruction— that the defendant had the right to use such force as was necessary, or apparently necessary, to protect himself. This left the jury to determine from all the evidence whether it was necessary for the defendant to shoot the deceased when he did, or whether he had other apparently safe means of securing'his safety.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Munday v. Commonwealth