Commonwealth v. Paulding’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

6 federal appellate · 4 district · 36 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 46 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “I told you that the statute [Mass. Gen. Laws eh. 265, § 1] provides that the degree of murder is always up to the jury and I’ve defined for you what felony-murder is. If you find the Commonwealth has proved all of the elements that I’ve told you that make up the crime of felony-murder in the first degree, you would find him guilty of that crime and you are, indeed, obligated to find a defendant guilty of the highest degree of crime that is proved beyond a reasonable doubt. But in the end the degree of murder, whether it is first degree or second degree is up to you as the jury.... And you will have with you on the verdict slip [with respect to the murder indictment the] options of finding the defendant not guilty of felony-murder, guilty of felony-murder in the first degree, or guilty of murder in the second degree and that’s going to be up to you.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 303 F. Supp. 2d 26 - Paulding v. Allen

2. “I did explain to you that under our murder statute it specifically provides that the degree of murder, whether it is first degree. murder or second degree murder, is up to the jury. So you, as a jury, if you find that there was — that the Commonwealth has proved there was an unlawful killing of [the victim], and that the elements of felony-murder have been proved,' in the end, it is up to you whether to find the defendant guilty of first degree murder or second degree murder. And so that option of second degree murder is there because the statute vests in the jury the right to determine the degree of murder. But I cannot explain to you any more factors or conditions on that.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 303 F. Supp. 2d 26 - Paulding v. Allen

3. “Murder committed with deliberately premeditated malice aforethought, or with extreme atrocity or cruelty, or in the commission or attempted commission of a crime punishable with death or imprisonment for life, is murder in the first degree. Murder which does not appear to be in the first degree is murder in the second degree. Petit treason shall be prosecuted and punished as murder. The degree of murder shall be found by the jury.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 303 F. Supp. 2d 26 - Paulding v. Allen