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← 450 MASS 687 - Commonwealth v. Espada

Commonwealth v. Espada’s Empirical Analysis

2008

Citation profile

35
cited by 35 later decisions
1
states following
June 2019
most recently cited

35 state decisions

Relationships

Relies on Negron v. United States · Los Angeles Unified School District v. Los Angeles NAACP · Commonwealth v. Wright · Commonwealth v. Harrington · Commonwealth v. Walden

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

  1. “There must be evidence that would warrant a reasonable doubt that something happened 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. “availed himself of all proper means to avoid physical combat before resorting to the use of deadly force,”
    1 later decision quote this exact passage
  3. “the 'victim ... must attack the defendant or at least strike a blow against the defendant.'”
    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.