Commonwealth v. Dickerson’s Empirical Analysis
1977
Citation profile
9 federal appellate · 6 district · 118 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 136 later decisions — most recently September 2019 · most notably Commonwealth v. Bradshaw (1982), Commonwealth v. Rodriguez (1979)
9 federal appellate · 6 district · 118 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
Relies on Stovall v. Denno · Furman v. Georgia · Bates v. State Bar · United States v. Radio Television News Directors Ass'n · McGautha v. California
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 136 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“ensuring that only jurors who will fairly and attentively consider the evidence before them are seated * * *.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage““It is my conclusion that G. L. c. 265, § 1, does not exempt jurors in a trial on an indictment charging murder in the first degree from the basic rules governing the distinctly separate roles of the judge and the jury in all other criminal trials. It does not endow them with any power to exercise clemency. It does not give them the right to return a verdict contrary to the facts or the law of the case. It does not authorize them to contrive a verdict designed by them to control the punishment which they think should be imposed on the defendant for his crime. Rather it requires them to return a just verdict on the basis of the facts found by them and the law applicable thereto as stated by the judge, to the end that the judge may impose such penalty as is required or permitted by law.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence““The judge, in our view, was correct in submitting verdicts of murder in both the first and second degree for the jury’s consideration, even though it could be argued that the evidence would support only one of two verdicts: either not guilty or guilty of murder in the first degree. In instructing as to murder in the second degree, the judge specifically, and correctly, relied on the statutory language in c. 265, § 1, that the degree of murder is for the jury to determine.””
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.