Commonwealth v. Morris’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

18 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 18 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “You are not required to draw such an inference and must use great care and caution before you draw an inference of guilt from such evidence.... [Y]ou should always remember that there may be numerous reasons why an innocent person might do such things.”

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

2. “possible explanations for a defendant's flight, it is for the jury to decide if the defendant's actions resulted from consciousness of guilt or some other reason.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 94 Mass. App. Ct. 1122 - Commonwealth v. Diantonio

3. “evidence must be probative of the defendant's feelings of guilt concerning the crime of which he is accused.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 93 Mass. App. Ct. 260 - Commonwealth v. Summers