Commonwealth v. Williams’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 7 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “A person may file a motion for forensic or scientific analysis under this chapter if that person: (1) has been convicted of a criminal offense in a court of the commonwealth; (2) is incarcerated in a state prison, house of correction, is on parole or probation or whose liberty has been otherwise restrained as the result of a conviction; and (3) asserts factual innocence of the crime for which the person has been convicted.”

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

2. “a defendant who asserts that the requested testing has the potential to result in evidence that is material to his or her identity as the perpetrator of the crime because no crime in fact occurred satisfies the § 3( b )(4) requirement.”

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

3. “allows those who have been convicted but assert factual innocence to have access to forensic and scientific testing of evidence and biological * material that has the potential to prove their innocence.”

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