Prieto v. Com.’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate · 16 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 24 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[t]he penalty of death shall not be imposed unless the Commonwealth shall prove beyond a reasonable doubt that there is a probability based upon evidence of the prior history of the defendant or of the circumstances surrounding the commission of the offense of which he is accused that he would commit criminal acts of violence that would constitute a continuing serious threat to society, or that his conduct in committing the offense was outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible or inhuman, in that it involved torture, depravity of mind or aggravated battery to the victim.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 117 F. Supp. 3d 780 - Juniper v. Zook

2. “conduct in committing the offense was outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible, or inhuman in that it involved depravity of mind and/or aggravated battery to the victim beyond the minimum necessary to accomplish the act of murder.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. JUNIPER v. Warden

3. “would commit criminal acts of violence that would constitute a continuing serious threat to society”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. JUNIPER v. Warden