Commonwealth v. Garvey’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

5 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 5 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “"( a ) Whoever, having been previously convicted of a violent crime or of a serious drug offense, both as defined herein, violates the provisions of paragraph ( a ), ( c ) or ( h ) of [§] 10 shall be punished by imprisonment in the [S]tate prison for not less than three years nor more than [fifteen] years. "( b ) Whoever, having been previously convicted of two violent crimes, or two serious drug offenses or one violent crime and one serious drug offense, arising from separate incidences, violates the provisions of said paragraph ( a ), ( c ) or ( h ) of said [§] 10 shall be punished by imprisonment in the [S]tate prison for not less than ten years nor more than [fifteen] years. "( c ) Whoever, having been previously convicted of three violent crimes or three serious drug offenses, or any combination thereof totaling three, arising from separate incidences, violates the provisions of said paragraph ( a ), ( c ) or ( h ) of said [§] 10 shall be punished by imprisonment in the [S]tate prison for not less than [fifteen] years nor more than [twenty] years."”

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

2. “"Whoever is convicted of a felony and has been previously twice convicted and sentenced to [S]tate prison or [S]tate correctional facility or a [F]ederal corrections facility for a term not less than [three] years ... shall be considered a habitual criminal and shall be punished ... for such felony for the maximum term provided by law."”

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

3. “one provision in the habitual criminal statute, G. L. c. 279, § 25 [ ( a ), which] provides for an enhanced penalty where a defendant has two prior convictions resulting in State or Federal prison sentences of three years or more.”

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