Commonwealth v. Murphy’s Empirical Analysis
1895
Citation profile
7 federal appellate · 47 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 54 later decisions — most recently April 2018 · most notably State v. Taylor (1965), United States v. Crimmins (1941)
7 federal appellate · 47 state decisions — followed in 16 states
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on Commonwealth v. Roosnell · Commonwealth v. Emmons · Commonwealth v. Raymond · Commonwealth v. Hayden · Commonwealth v. Connelly
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 54 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““Considering the nature of the offense, the purpose to be accomplished, the practical methods available for the enforcement of the law, and such other matters as throw light upon the meaning of the language, the question ip. interpreting a criminal statute is, whether the intention of the legislature was to make knowledge of the facts an essential element of the offense, or to put upon every one the burden of finding out whether his contemplated act is prohibited, and of refraining from it if it is.””
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Studer v. State““But there is a large class of cases in which, on grounds of public policy, certain acts are made punishable without proof that the defendant understands the facts that give character to his act. In such eases it is deemed best to require everybody at his peril to ascertain whether his act comes within the legislative prohibition.”'”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Zent v. State
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.