Commonwealth v. Wright’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 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 2 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The O’Connell warning is necessary because there is a constitutional right to consult with an attorney when one is arrested and the possibility exists that an arrestee may mistakenly believe that he has the right to speak to an attorney before submitting to the blood-alcohol test. There is no similar constitutional right to speak to a doctor about one’s medical condition during an arrest, and therefore, there is no danger of confusion as envisioned by O’Connell. Although our opinion in Fiester speaks of the right to speak to an attorney or ‘someone else,’ that right to speak to ‘someone else’ must be a request to speak to someone concerning the exercise of the right to remain silent.”

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