Carrier 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. ““Since the time of Lord Hale, who admonished, ‘it must be remembered that this is an accusation easily to be made and hard to be proved, and harder to be defended by the party accused, though never so innocent,’ the courts have been disturbed by a situation where a word may be substituted for definite proof of an act. The various states have found different solutions: in some states, by statute, the testimony of the prosecutrix must be corroborated; in some jurisdictions no corroboration is necessary. See 44 Am.Jur., Rape, § 106. In still other jurisdictions, which include this one, the uncorroborated testimony of the prosecutrix may be sufficient to sustain a conviction of rape if the proof is clear and convincing and the surrounding circumstances are such as to indicate the probable guilt of the accused or, at least, to corroborate indirectly her testimony. However, if the story of the prosecutrix is intrinsically improbable or her actions before and after the time of the alleged offense are such as indicate (when considered in the light of ordinary rules of behavior) that the related event did not happen — then the uncorroborated testimony is not sufficient.””

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