Johnstone’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

27 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 27 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““The statutory scheme therefore expressly sets the qualified examiners apart from other sources of expert evidence. Indeed, the role of the qualified examiners within that scheme persuades us that the Legislature intended them to serve in a capacity similar to that of a gatekeeper, deciding whether a person warrants commitment as a sexually dangerous person. Implicit in this view is the conclusion that, if both qualified examiners determine that a person is not sexually dangerous, the Commonwealth cannot meet its burden of proof. Assuming without deciding that an opinion of current sexual dangerousness included in a CAB report constitutes expert evidence of the kind that we have required ... the CAB’s opinion cannot serve as a substitute for those of the qualified examiners under the statutory scheme created by G. L. c. 123A.””

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. McIntire · In re Chapman

2. “[A]ny person who has been ... convicted of ... a sexual offense and who suffers from a mental abnormality or personality disorder which makes the person likely to engage in sexual offenses if not confined to a secure facility.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 92 Mass. App. Ct. 715 - Commonwealth v. Dinardo · 94 Mass. App. Ct. 1116 - Commonwealth v. Curlew

3. “'[s]exually dangerous person', [is] any person who has been . . . (iii) previously adjudicated as such by a court of the commonwealth and whose misconduct in sexual matters indicates a general lack of power to control his sexual impulses, as evidenced by repetitive or compulsive sexual misconduct by either violence against any victim, or aggression against any victim under the age of 16 years, and who, as a result, is likely to attack or otherwise inflict injury on such victims because of his uncontrolled or uncontrollable desires.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 87 Mass. App. Ct. 162 - Souza