Commonwealth v. Richardson’s Empirical Analysis
1997
Citation profile
2 district · 12 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 14 later decisions — most recently January 2018
2 district · 12 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 Johnson v. United States · Institut Pasteur v. Cambridge Biotech Corp. · Commonwealth v. Kozec · Commonwealth v. Rodriguez · Commonwealth v. Cordle
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 14 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“It is not enough for the Commonwealth to prove its case by the weight of the evidence, by the preponderance of the evidence, by the balance of the evidence. That’s not enough. The Commonwealth is obliged to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt. Now, what do we mean by proof beyond a reasonable doubt? Let me attempt to tell you what proof beyond a reasonable doubt does not mean, and in that way hopefully [ ] clear your mind as to what proof beyond a reasonable doubt does mean. Proof beyond a reasonable doubt does not mean proof beyond all doubt. There is no matter in the course of human affairs that is capable of absolute certitude. So that proof beyond a reasonable doubt does not mean proof beyond all doubt. It does not mean proof beyond the possibility of innocence. It does not mean proof beyond a fanciful or capricious or whimsical or arbitrary doubt that you conjure up in your mind. And it certainly does not mean a doubt that may exist in the mind of a juror who is looking for a doubt in order to acquit the defendant or an excuse to acquit the defendant. That’s not a reasonable doubt at all. Now, I have told you what a reasonable doubt is not. Now, what is it on the positive side? On the positive side, a reasonable doubt does mean a doubt that remains in the mind of a reasonable juror who is seeking the truth. I am back to that key word again: seeking the truth. That is the question that you want to put to yourself and to your conscience. Am I seeking the truth? It is ”
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.