Whitehead v. Com.’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

25 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 25 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “In reviewing the denial of a motion to suppress evidence claiming a violation of a person's Fourth Amendment rights, we consider the facts in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth, the prevailing party at trial. The burden is on the defendant to show that the trial court committed reversible error. We are bound by the trial court's factual findings unless those findings are plainly wrong or unsupported by the evidence. We will review the trial court's application of the law de novo.”

   4 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. McGhee v. Com. · Hicks v. Com.

2. “The [] decisions in Di Re and Ybarra demonstrate that probable cause to arrest and/or search an individual must be particularized to that individual; mere proximity to the criminal activity alone is insufficient to establish probable cause. However, as illustrated by the decision in Pringle , evidence showing a common criminal enterprise can provide the necessary link between criminal activity and an individual so as to establish probable cause sufficiently particularized to that individual.”

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