Commonwealth v. Rodriquez’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 district · 3 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 5 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “First, it’s up to you, as the finders of the facts, to determine whether or not [the co-defendant] Mr. Molina did solicit Mr. Valentin, as Mr. Valentin has just testified. If you conclude that such solicitation was in fact made, you may consider [sic] as some evidence bearing on Mr. Molina’s state of mind around the time of the killing. However, the fact that Mr. Molina may have solicited Mr. Valentin to put a cord around the neck of someone in a vehicle, is not sufficient evidence in and of itself, to conclude that he solicited the defendant to do that, or that the defendant in fact himself, put a cord around the decedent’s neck. Rather, you may consider the fact of the solicitation, along with all the evidence in the case, in determining what the defendant did or did not do. But that, even if that solicitation occurred, with Mr. Valentin, it doesn’t mean that Mr. Molina then asked this defendant to do it, because it doesn’t necessarily mean that this defendant’s story, or that in fact, this defendant did that. You have to look at all the evidence in the case to make that determination.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 826 F. Supp. 2d 319 - Rodriguez v. Roden

2. “... did not deny that he was present at the murder; rather, he claimed that he agreed only to assist another person, Richard Molina, in an unarmed robbery that was not committed with a conscious disregard for human life, and thus, he could not be convicted of felony-murder.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 826 F. Supp. 2d 319 - Rodriguez v. Roden

3. “... a few days before the murder in this case, Molina solicited another person, Miguel Valentin, to commit a murder, with the details of the solicitation at least somewhat similar to the events that took place subsequently with the defendant present.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 826 F. Supp. 2d 319 - Rodriguez v. Roden