Commonwealth v. Woods’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

54 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 55 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The inferences that support a conviction 'need only be reasonable and possible; [they] need not be necessary or inescapable.'”

   12 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Veiovis · 95 Mass. App. Ct. 156 - Commonwealth v. Quinones

2. “adopt[ed] a rule that where, at the time a person appears to testify before a grand jury, the prosecutor has reason to believe that the witness is either a 'target' or is likely to become one, the witness must be advised, before testifying, that (1) he or she may refuse to answer any question if a truthful answer would tend to incriminate the witness, and (2) anything that he or she does say may be used against the witness in a subsequent legal proceeding”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Woods · Woods v. Medeiros

3. “a person as to whom the prosecutor or the grand jury has substantial evidence linking him or her to the commission of a crime and who, in the judgment of the prosecutor, is a putative defendant”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Woods · Woods v. Medeiros