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← 431 MASS 782 - Commonwealth v. Little

Commonwealth v. Little’s Empirical Analysis

2000

Citation profile

32
cited by 32 later decisions
1
states following
September 2019
most recently cited

2 district · 30 state decisions

Relationships

Relies on Commonwealth v. Harrington · Commonwealth v. Walden · Commonwealth v. Gunter · Commonwealth v. Torres · Commonwealth v. Soaris

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

  1. “would warrant a reasonable doubt that something happened [i.e., provocation] which would have been likely to produce in an ordinary person such a state of passion, anger, fear, fright, or nervous excitement as would eclipse his capacity for reflection or restraint, and that what happened actually did produce such a state of mind in the defendant.”
    1 later decision quote this exact passage
  2. “self-defense, if warranted by the circumstances and carried out properly, constitutes a complete defense”
    1 later decision quote this exact passage
  3. “shot his handgun in the heat of passion, provoked by the above circumstances.”
    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.