Render v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

31 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 31 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““Under the charge in such an indictment neither the chastity of the prosecuting witness nor her relationship with other men is involved. The single question is whether defendant had sexual intercourse with a person under the age fixed in the statute. Whether that person has theretofore or thereafter been guilty of a similar offense constitutes no reason why the defendant should not be punished, and the fact that snch prosecuting witness had upon sneh previous occasions contracted a communicable disease, in the absence of special circumstances, does not affect her credibility as a witness. If it be desired to impeach her testimony, it must be done either .by contradicting her evidence, showing she has made different or inconsistent statements, or that her general reputation for truth and veracity is bad.””

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