Commonwealth v. Ahart’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

8 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 8 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “If, on the facts, there is a possibility of bias, even a remote one, the judge has no discretion to bar all inquiry into the subject.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 92 Mass. App. Ct. 1118 - Commonwealth v. Batista · 92 Mass. App. Ct. 1109 - Commonwealth v. Imbriano

2. “officer should be believed because he was a twenty-six-year veteran of the State police[ ] ... and ... had worked on more than one hundred homicide investigations”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 93 Mass. App. Ct. 1106 - Commonwealth v. Peulic

3. “is some indication that the comment by the prosecutor could not have created a substantial [risk] of miscarriage of justice.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 93 Mass. App. Ct. 1121 - Commonwealth v. Peterson