Commonwealth v. Barbosa’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 district · 40 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 42 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Where there is a substantial risk that the defendant was convicted of a crime for which he was not indicted by a grand jury, we cannot apply a harmless error standard”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 95 Mass. App. Ct. 1 - Commonwealth v. Garcia · 92 Mass. App. Ct. 1113 - Commonwealth v. Mendez

2. “one count of distribution of cocaine; one count of distribution of cocaine within a school zone; and one count of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. Count one of this indictment ... referred to the date of the incident, but did not include any specific allegations about the time of the incident or the name of the buyer. There was no indication that count one of the indictment was intended to include more than one act of distribution.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 92 Mass. App. Ct. 1105 - Commonwealth v. Kindell

3. ““It is a rule of the common law, as well as a provision of the Constitution of this Commonwealth, that no one shall be held to answer, unless the crime with which it is intended to charge him is set forth in the indictment with precision and fulness; and this rule is not to be defeated by allowing the defendant to be convicted upon evidence of another offence of the same kind, committed on the same day, but not identical with it.””

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