Shirley v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

15 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 15 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““Under these provisions of the Criminal Code, if a defendant desires to plead a former acquittal or conviction, he must do so in the manner pointed out in section 164, so that the court may know from the plea itself the particular prosecution that is relied on as a bar, and the attorney for the commonwealth be prepared to make issue of fact with the defendant upon his plea.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Gray

2. ““They were not asked to, nor did they (the witnesses) specify the time of the month or the year in which the brandy was obtained; nor was any attempt made to confine the evidence of the transactions to any particular time.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Lewis v. Commonwealth

3. ““The defendant pleads that he has been acquitted (or convicted, as the case may be), of the offense charged in the indictment by the judgment of -- court (naming it), rendered on the-day of-(naming the time).””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Gray