Jenkins v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

6 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 6 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “In criminal cases husband and wife shall be allowed, and subject to the rules of evidence governing other witnesses, may be compelled to testify in behalf of each other, but neither shall be compelled, nor, without the consent of the other, allowed to be called as a witness against the other, except in the case of a prosecution for an offense committed by one against the other.... In the prosecution for a criminal offense committed by one against the other... each shall be a competent witness except as to privileged communications.”

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

2. “Neither of the indictments charged that defendant committed an offense against his wife, so neither was a prosecution for an offense committed against the wife. Therefore, [the wife] was incompetent to testify against her husband.”

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