Commonwealth v. Stephens’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 federal appellate · 9 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 12 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The failure to impeach a witness does not generally prejudice the defendant to such a degree as to constitute ineffective assistance of counsel. Moreover, here, Washington was thoroughly cross-examined using her prior inconsistent statements, and she admitted having consumed alcohol on the night of the alleged attack. Notwithstanding counsel’s failure to use Washington’s criminal history to cast doubt upon her credibility, his cross-examination was apparently quite effective, as evidenced by the jury’s decision to acquit both defendants of armed robbery, in spite of Washington’s claim that a gun was used in the attack.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Stephens v. Hall