Commonwealth v. DiMarzo’s Empirical Analysis
1974
Citation profile
65 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 65 later decisions — most recently July 2018 · most notably Commonwealth v. Helfant (1986), 16 Mass. App. Ct. 163 - Terrio v. McDONOUGH HARTFORD FIRE INS. CO. (1983)
65 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Applies 18 U.S.C. § 3771 · 28 U.S.C. § 2072
Relies on Bruton v. United States · Schmerber v. State of California · Chambers v. Mississippi · Gagnon v. Scarpelli · Snyder v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts
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 65 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The danger of prejudice most clearly arises when the prior convictions are similar in nature to the indictments on trial.... It is firmly and wisely established in our law that no defendant should be convicted of a crime by proof of his reputation or propensity to commit similar crimes.... It is reasonable for us to be confident that in most cases limiting instructions accomplish their intended purpose. Nevertheless, in cases like the instant one, where the evidence subject to limitations has an extremely high potential for unfair prejudice, we have a duty to be skeptical as to the effectiveness of limiting instructions.... There is only one appropriate remedy when evidence of a defendant's prior conviction is offered which is highly prejudicial and which has little or no probative value even upon the limited issue for which it is received. That remedy is to exclude it....”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“A medical examiner testified at length and placed the time of death as being within seventy-two hours of the time of the autopsy ...”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“there was ample evidence that the beatings which eventually led to the death of the victim took place in Massachusetts”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.