Commonwealth v. Evans’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

24 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 28 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““I say to you, the only way that you could possibly find Robert Black not guilty of murder in the first degree is if Sidney Adelman walked through that door right now. That’s not going to happen. Ask Mrs. Adelman if that’s going to happen.””

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Black · Commonwealth v. Johnson

2. ““And I think (the victim) would say, ‘The only way you couldn’t find this defendant guilty of murder of the first degree is for me to come alive again before your very eyes and walk out of that door to my home.’ ””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Johnson

3. “Trial counsel could not have had a reasonable basis designed to effectuate [his client's] interests when he failed to object to [these] prejudicial and inflammatory remarks.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. Commonwealth v. McKenna