Commonwealth v. Tolan’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

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

1. “An officer may suggest broadly that it would be 'better' for a suspect to tell the truth, may indicate that the person's cooperation would be brought to the attention of the public officials or others involved, or may state in general terms that cooperation has been considered favorably by the courts in the past”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 93 Mass. App. Ct. 120 - Commonwealth v. Rivers

2. “[W]e 'give[ ] substantial deference to the judge's ultimate findings and conclusions of law, but independently review the correctness of the judge's application of constitutional principles to the facts found.'”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 93 Mass. App. Ct. 120 - Commonwealth v. Rivers

3. “whether ... implied promises of leniency were likely to have affected the voluntariness of the defendant's statements, the 'touchstone is whether the police”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 93 Mass. App. Ct. 120 - Commonwealth v. Rivers