Price v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

32 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 34 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “A penal statute cannot be extended by implication or construction. It cannot be made to embrace cases not within the letter though within the reason and policy of the law. "To constitute the offense the [defendant's conduct] must be both within the letter and spirit of the statute defining it. Those who contend that a penalty is imposed must show that the words of the act distinctly cover the case. No conviction can be had if the words are merely equally capable of a construction that would, and one that would not, inflict the penalty. "If a penal statute be so ambiguous as to leave reasonable doubt of its meaning, it is the duty of the court to refuse to impose the penalty.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Robinson v. Com.

2. “an accused is as much entitled ‘to the benefit of a reasonable doubt about the law as about the facts’,”

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