Wilson v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

38 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 38 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““When the act thus provides that no person shall be eligible to parole except on certain conditions, it necessarily means that those who comply with the conditions shall be eligible to parole. The act, therefore, defines who shall be paroled and does not commit to the commissioners arbitrary power, but imposes on them the duty to parole the prisoners whom the act declares eligible to parole, and this duty the board of prison commissioners may be required in a proper state of case to perform. Manifestly the standard fixed by these sections is so unmistakable in meaning and specific in character, as to enable the convict to know what his conduct must b'e to entitle him to the parole or discharge, and also to enable the board to know what will entitle him to either.” (p. 351.)”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Garvey v. Brown

2. ““No person so confined shall be eligible to parole, or entitled to the provisions of this act, until he shall have served the minimum term of imprisonment provided by law for the crime for which he was so committed, except prisoners committed for life, who shall have actually served five years; nor unless he shall have been obedient to the rules and regulations of the institution in which he is confined for at least nine consecutive months next preceding the date of his parole; nor until he shall have secured, or there shall have been secured for him, some respectable employment with some responsible person or concern at a compensation sufficient to render him self-sustaining. (Acts, Ky. 1910, ch. 16.)”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Garvey v. Brown

3. “‘ ‘ In determining whether evidence of a dying declaration is competent, it is undoubtedly the safer practice for the court to hear it in advance of its introduction before the jury and in their absence, in order that they may get no impression from it that would be prejudicial to the defendant, if the court should rule it incompetent and reject it.””

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