Commonwealth v. Cintron’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

21 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 21 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““A defendant who seeks relief from the loss or destruction of potentially exculpatory evidence has the initial burden, Commonwealth v. Olszewski, 416 Mass. 707, 714 (1993), cert. denied, 513 U.S. 835 (1994), to establish ‘a “reasonable possibility, based on concrete evidence rather than a fertile imagination,” that access to the [lost or destroyed evidence] would have produced evidence favorable to his cause’ (citations omitted). Commonwealth v. Neal, 392 Mass. 1, 12 (1984). If he meets his initial burden, ‘a balancing test is employed to determine the appropriateness and extent of remedial action. The courts must weigh the culpability of the Commonwealth, the materiality of the evidence, and the potential prejudice to the defendant.’ Commonwealth v. Willie, 400 Mass. 427, 432 (1987).” (Emphasis added.)”

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

2. “will be considered along with the judge's final instructions in deciding whether the instructions were correct”

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

3. “a reasonable possibility, based on concrete evidence,”

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