Bast v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

52 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 52 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““An alibi is the strongest possible defense when thoroughly established, but it becomes, at once, the most dangerous and weakest of all defenses that could be set up, when it is not thoroughly established. It has been wisely made the province of the jury to say, from the evidence presented in each particular case, whether or not the alibi has been established. ’ ’”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Gray v. Commonwealth · State v. Oschoa

2. “‘ ‘ That this court has held with a degree of uniformity that it is the duty of the trial court to give to the jury all the law of the case, as warranted by the facts and circumstances proven; and in those cases in which the physical facts show that the homicide could not have occurred in a particular way, then it is not the duty of the trial court to give to the jury the law on that phase of the ease. Where the physical facts are such as to preclude the idea that there was a struggle or any resistance offered, whatever, by the deceased, at the time that his life was taken, the trial court would be fully justified and warranted in .refusing to give an instruction on self-defense. And, again, where the physical facts, as in the case before us, are such as to preclude the idea or the possibility that the killing was the result of an accident, or that it was the result of a sudden affray, then the trial court would be warranted in refusing to give an instruction on the subjects of voluntary or involuntary manslaughter. This point is aptly illustrated in the case where an infant of tender age is murdered by having its throat cut while lying in its crib. Most assuredly no instruction in a case of this kind would be given upon the subjects of voluntary or involuntary manslaughter, or self-defense; and yet, if the position taken herein by appellant is tenable, this would have to be done. The same would be true in case a helpless paralytic should be murdered. And not unlike the case ”

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

3. ““Thus it will be seen that in a number of cases this court has held that in instances where there was no eyewitness to the killing, and the evidence is purely circumstantial, it is the duty of the trial court to give to the jury, as said in the Rutherford opinion, all of the law that might be' applicable to the case as developed by the facts proven.””

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