Commonwealth v. Horne’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

11 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 11 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “There was nothing in the evidence to suggest that it was possible to see through the window's curtains and blinds, that shadows of people could be seen moving behind the covered window, or that sounds indicative of human occupation could be heard coming from the room.”

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

2. “[I]t is only when a defendant has reason to believe that he is firing in the direction of a person or crowd of people that his conduct creates nothing less than a plain and strong likelihood of death.”

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

3. “determine the appropriate 'unit of prosecution', we 'look to the language and purpose of the statute[ ], to see whether [it] speak[s] directly to the issue of the appropriate unit of prosecution.'”

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