Commonwealth v. Ortiz’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

25 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 25 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “"The defendant argues that the Commonwealth's evidence was insufficient to warrant the ... conviction because the prosecution had aggregated the amounts found in two `stashes' of heroin at different locations to arrive at 200 grams or more...." "... The defendant claims that he was entitled to a required finding of not guilty on the indictment charging him with trafficking in 200 or more grams of heroin of May 8, 1996, because the Commonwealth's evidence was insufficient as matter of law.... [H]e claims that the heroin he possessed at each location ... constituted separate quantities that were intended for different purposes, and the Commonwealth was not, therefore, permitted to combine the two quantities in one possession charge. The defendant bases his argument that aggregation was impermissible on what was expressed in Commonwealth v. Diaz, 383 Mass. 73, 82-85 , 417 N.E.2d 950 (1981). We stated that our drug statutes do not describe the `offense of maintaining a drug business, which might be proved by a number of acts of possession and sale; rather the statutes denounce particular acts stated disjunctively.' Id. at 84 , 417 N.E.2d 950 . The defendant reasons that, if according to the Diaz case, the crime of possession with intent to distribute heroin involves one specific act or transaction, then, in the absence of evidence that two amounts of heroin are part of the same act or transaction, the Commonwealth may not aggregate the two amounts in order to convict him of a mor”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Townsend v. State · Williams v. State

2. “4The defendant also suggests that his double jeopardy rights were implicated when the Commonwealth prosecuted him with one violation of the statute rather than two separate violations. Double jeopardy issues arise in situations where a defendant has multiple convictions of violating related statutory provisions based on the same conduct, see Blockburger v. United States, 284 U.S. 299, 304 , 52 S.Ct. 180 , 76 L.Ed. 306 (1932), or where a defendant is subjected to successive prosecutions for the same offense. See Rashad v. Burt, 108 F.3d 677, 679-680 (6th Cir. 1997).... The circumstances of this case do not raise issues of double jeopardy. Cf. Commonwealth v. Rabb, 431 Mass. 123 , 725 N.E.2d 1036 (2000). "6Evidence that a quantity of a controlled substance found in a defendant's possession comes from a certain supply will continue to be relevant to prove a defendant's constructive possession of the controlled substance in the supply. Evidence that both quantities of heroin came from the same supply was not necessary, in this case, to prove the defendant's constructive possession of the heroin in the house ..., because that heroin was linked to the defendant by his own words, when he told the police where they could find the rest of the heroin. We note ... that the defendant does not argue on appeal that he lacked constructive possession of the heroin in the house.”

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

3. “investigation and recollection of the criminal events”

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