Commonwealth v. Santos’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

24 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 24 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “In such circumstances, an interrogating officer must cease the interrogation, but is entitled to ask a question to clarify the defendant’s intent. The question — for example, in a form such as, “I just want to be sure — do you want an attorney?”— should be brief, worded only to elicit an affirmative or negative response concerning whether the suspect wants an attorney, and should not be designed to keep the suspect talking. After such an inquiry to clarify whether a suspect has indeed requested an attorney, nothing further should be asked unless the suspect responds to the question in the negative.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 32 Mass. L. Rptr. 153 - Commonwealth v. Ochoa

2. ““the importance of the evidence in the prosecution’s case; the relationship between the evidence and the premise of the defense; who introduced the issue at trial; the frequency of the reference; whether the erroneously admitted evidence was merely cumulative of properly admitted evidence; the availability or effect of curative instructions; and the weight or quantum of evidence of guilt.””

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

3. “or some other symbol in place of the codefendant's name, where the jury will realize that the statement obviously refers to and implicates a specific codefendant. See Gray v. Maryland , 523 U.S. 185 , 194-197, 118 S.Ct. 1151 , 140 L.Ed.2d 294 (1998) ; Bacigalupo , 455 Mass. at 493 -495 , 918 N.E.2d 51 (introduction of nontestifying codefendant's statement that his”

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