Commonwealth v. Vacher’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

20 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 20 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “if there is some basis for concluding that the witness is more likely to correctly identify the defendant from the photograph than is the jury. Put another way, 'such testimony is admissible ... when the witness possesses sufficiently relevant familiarity with the defendant that the jury cannot also possess.'”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Pina · Commonwealth v. Wardsworth

2. “If the witness lacks such familiarity, it is the province of the jury to draw their own conclusions regarding the identity of the person depicted without the witness's assistance.”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Wardsworth · Commonwealth v. Vasquez

3. “increase[d] potential for inappropriate prejudice to the defendant stemming from identification testimony from a police officer who is so designated”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Wardsworth