Rice v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

5 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 5 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““There is every reason to believe that our constitutional grand jury was intended to operate substantially like its English progenitor. The basic purpose of the English grand jury was to provide a fair method for instituting criminal proceedings .... ””

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Democratic Party of Kentucky v. Graham · Fletcher v. Graham

2. “[Tjhis court has on several occasions held that the court has no power to go behind an indictment for the purpose of inquiring into the competency of the evidence before the grand jury.... [T]he court will not inquire into the legality or sufficiency of the evidence on which an indictment is based even if it is averred that no legal evidence was produced before the grand jury.”

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

3. “"Indictment" is a technical word, peculiar to Anglo Saxon jurisprudence and implies the finding of a grand jury, as does also the word "presentment." "Information" is a written accusation of a crime, preferred by a public prosecuting officer without the intervention of a grand jury.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Hoskins v. Maricle