Commonwealth v. Johnson’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

19 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 19 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““If a witness is sitting face to face with a defendant but refuses to make eye contact, jurors observing this likely will take it into consideration when assessing credibility .... On the other hand, when the witness is permitted to testify with his back to the defendant, the jury are unable to observe the effect of face-to-face confrontation on the witness.” (Citations omitted.) Id.”

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

2. “[u]nlike the Sixth Amendment, however, art. 12 contains an indispensable element of face-to-face confrontation of witnesses appearing at trial.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. State v. Foster

3. “every subject shall have the right ... to meet the witnesses against him face to face.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Foster