Commonwealth v. Gomes’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

6 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 6 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “"We also recognize that defense counsel cannot reasonably be found to have performed in a manner that falls measurably below that which might be expected from an ordinary fallible lawyer simply because counsel, in the attempt to persuade the judge to give an eyewitness identification jury instruction that differed from the model instruction earlier adopted by this court in [ Commonwealth v. Rodriguez , 378 Mass. 296 , 310-311 (1979) ], failed to demonstrate that each principle in the defendant's proposed instruction was generally accepted in the relevant scientific community. An attorney who would make such an effort is worthy of commendation by the defense bar, but the attorney who does not can hardly be deemed incompetent."”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 94 Mass. App. Ct. 1114 - Commonwealth v. Espinosa