Commonwealth v. Harrell’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

9 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 9 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “rigid adherence to a prohibition against inconsistent verdicts may interfere with the proper function of a jury, particularly with regal'd to lenity. Such an approach would unduly restrict the right of the jury to consider the evidence broadly and convict or acquit based upon its view of the evidence pertaining to each charge. Moreover, that approach requires analytical precision that would inevitably lead to confusion and needless appellate reversals. The better approach would be to examine the sufficiency of the evidence to support each verdict. This approach is consistent with the United State Supreme Court’s holding that each count of an indictment should be regarded as a separate indictment, and thus consistency in a verdict is not necessary.”

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