Commonwealth v. Rivera’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 district · 19 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 22 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““The police official in charge of the station or other place of detention having a telephone wherein a person is held in custody, shall permit the use of the telephone, at the expense of the arrested person, for the purpose of allowing the arrested person to communicate with his family or friends, or to arrange for release on bail, or to engage the services of an attorney. Any such person shall be informed forthwith upon his arrival at such station or place of detention, of his right to so use the telephone, and such use shall be permitted within one hour thereafter.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Novo

2. “Evidence adduced at trial but not before the motion judge . . . cannot be determinative of the propriety of the motion judge's decision”

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

3. “even 'constitutional errors can be harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.'”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 92 Mass. App. Ct. 1111 - Commonwealth v. Blake