Commonwealth v. Coggeshall’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

12 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 12 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “(1) a child under age eighteen, (2) a substantial risk of serious bodily injury or sexual abuse, and (3) the defendant wantonly or recklessly (i) engaged in conduct that created the substantial risk, or (ii) failed to take reasonable steps to alleviate that risk where a duty to act exists.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 92 Mass. App. Ct. 1113 - Commonwealth v. Shurtleff · Commonwealth v. Hardy

2. “wantonly or recklessly engage[d] in conduct that create[d] a substantial risk of serious bodily injury or sexual abuse to a child [under the age of eighteen] or wantonly or recklessly fail[ed] to take reasonable steps to alleviate such risk where there [was] a duty to act.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 94 Mass. App. Ct. 558 - Commonwealth v. Santos · Commonwealth v. Garcia

3. “constitute [ ] a gross deviation from the standard of conduct that a reasonable person would observe in the situation.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 92 Mass. App. Ct. 1113 - Commonwealth v. Shurtleff · Commonwealth v. Garcia