Commonwealth v. Jasper’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

8 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 8 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Now, with regards to the death penalty, you know what that implies. Somewhere down the line, if you impose the death penalty, the case will be reviewed thoroughly. And after thorough review the death penalty may be carried out. I won’t go into all the various reviews that we have. That shouldn’t concern you at this point.”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Baumhammers · Commonwealth v. Chambers

2. “by stating that any death sentence would be 'reviewed thoroughly' and 'may be carried out,' the [trial] court unduly and unnecessarily emphasized the role of appellate courts and gave the impression that any mistake which the jury may make in imposing the death penalty would be corrected by appellate review.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Commonwealth, Aplt. v. Montalvo, M.

3. “the plain import of the court's remarks is that although the jury may impose the death penalty, it may not be carried out, thus removing from the jury the responsibility for imposing the death penalty.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Commonwealth, Aplt. v. Montalvo, M.