Commonwealth v. Dirgo’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. “a serious doubt whether the result of the trial might have been different had the error not been made.”

   4 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Brown · 93 Mass. App. Ct. 1121 - Commonwealth v. Walsh

2. “). But where the defendant did not object to the prosecutor's use of this rhetorical question and where there was no testimony that the defendant sexually touched Camila on New Year's Eve, we conclude that this impropriety did not create a substantial risk of a miscarriage of justice. Second, the defendant claims that the prosecutor improperly compared the evidence in this case to the evidence in other child sexual abuse cases when she stated during her closing argument,”

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

3. “Where, as here, defense counsel in closing argument challenges the credibility of the complainant, it is proper for the prosecutor to invite the jury to consider whether the complainant had a motive to lie and to identify evidence that demonstrates that the complainant's testimony is reliable.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. COMMONWEALTH v. MARKUS COOPER.