Commonwealth v. Waite’s Empirical Analysis
1996
Citation profile
2 district · 101 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 103 later decisions — most recently October 2021 · most notably Commonwealth v. Vinnie (1998), Vassallo v. Baxter Healthcare Corp. (1998)
2 district · 101 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 Miranda v. State of Arizona Vignera · Brecht v. Abrahamson · Doyle v. Ohio · New York v. Quarles · Greer v. Miller
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 103 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The proper response to a jury question must remain within the discretion of the trial judge, who has observed the evidence and the jury firsthand and can tailor supplemental instructions accordingly.”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage“"A defendant’s silence after the police have given the warnings mandated by Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 467-479 , 86 S.Ct. 1602 , 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966), may not be used against that defendant.... [T]o do so would 'penalize' the invocation of the right to silence.” Commonwealth v. Waite, 422 Mass. 792, 797 , 665 N.E.2d 982 (1996), citing Doyle v. Ohio, 426 U.S. 610 , 96 S.Ct. 2240 , 49 L.Ed.2d 91 (1976). See Commonwealth v. Person, supra at 140, 508 N.E.2d 88 . "Still, in a few situations evidence of silence is properly admitted because it is not 'used against' the accused.” Commonwealth v. Waite, supra at 798, 665 N.E.2d 982 , citing Commonwealth v. Habarek, 402 Mass. 105 , 520 N.E.2d 1303 (1988), S.C., 421 Mass. 1005 , 657 N.E.2d 228 (1995).”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Martinez v. Spencer“Also, we are troubled by the prosecutor's bald assertion to the jury that the defendant was 'a liar.' To argue to the jury in this manner was clear error.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. State v. Austin
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.