Commonwealth v. Dixon’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

47 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 47 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The facts show that after appellant was advised of her Miranda rights and signed the waiver form and before she actually responded to custodial interrogation, the police immediately indicated that the questioning would pertain to her son’s death. A period of approximately ten minutes elapsed before appellant responded and immediately confessed. Thus appellant was acutely aware of the subject of the interrogation before and at the time she confessed. The signing of the waiver form only evidences a suspect’s willingness to participate in the interrogation, however, the actual waiver occurs when the person begins to respond to the police inquiries. At the time appellant responded, she had been given Miranda warnings and knew the subject matter of the inquiry. The fact that the warnings preceded the explanation of the subject of the inquiry, under these facts, is of no moment. I would affirm the judgment, [e.o.]”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. 434 So. 2d 967 - State v. Williams

2. “a valid waiver of Miranda rights requires that the suspect have an awareness of the general nature of the transaction giving rise to the investigation.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. People v. Spring