Stone v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

7 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 7 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “It is indeed rare for any criminal prose-ecution not to involve some sort of plea-bargaining along the way. Arguably, when this happens it can be the most critical stage of the proceeding.... [It is in the negotiation of a criminal case where the learning and experience of legal counsel can prove most vital. The overwhelming majority of criminal cases are pled out. Our eriminal justice system has arrived at a place where often the negotiating skills of a lawyer are more critical than his or her prowess in a courtroom.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Hopper v. State

2. “The decision to accept or reject a plea offer necessarily involves an analysis of the charges, the nature and admissibility of the [government's] evidence, and an accurate assessment of the defendant's actual guilt. '[A)n intelligent assessment of the relative advantages of pleading guilty is frequently impossible without the assistance of an attorney.'”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Hopper v. State

3. “Standby assistance of counsel, however, does not satisfy the Sixth Amendment right to counsel. The assistance of standby counsel, no matter how useful to the court or the defendant, cannot qualify as the assistance of counsel, required by the Sixth Amendment.”

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