Commonwealth v. Murphy’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 district · 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 7 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““The constitutional standard of fairness requires only that the jurors be impartial and indifferent.” Commonwealth v. Daughtry, 417 Mass. 136, 147 , 627 N.E.2d 928 (1994), quoting from Commonwealth v. Jackson, 376 Mass. 790, 799 , 383 N.E.2d 835 (1978). “Juror bias is a question of fact to be determined by the judge. A finding that a juror is impartial will not be overturned on appeal unless the defendant makes a clear showing of abuse of discretion or that the finding was clearly erroneous.” Commonwealth v. Emerson, 430 Mass. 378, 384 , 719 N.E.2d 494 (1999), cert. denied, 529 U.S. 1030 , 120 S.Ct. 1446 , 146 L.Ed.2d 333 (2000). In part, a judge’s determination of impartiality rests on her determination of the credibility of those testifying. “The determination of a juror’s impartiality ‘is essentially one of credibility, and therefore largely one of demeanor’.... In such circumstances, we give a trial judge’s determination of impartiality great deference.’ ” Commonwealth v. Ferguson, 425 Mass. 349, 352-353 , 680 N.E.2d 1166 (1997), quoting from Patton v. Yount, 467 U.S. 1025, 1038 , 104 S.Ct. 2885 , 81 L.Ed.2d 847 (1984). As well, the mere fact that a juror knows a police officer or prosecutor, or is related to them, does not disqualify a juror from service or show any bias. See Commonwealth v. Duran, 435 Mass. 97, 106-107 , 755 N.E.2d 260 (2001) (fact that juror was a correctional officer where the defendant was held did not create a presumption of bias). The trial court’s”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 497 F. Supp. 2d 47 - Murphy v. Thompson

2. “So, this person said, “Hi, How are you?” I said, “I’m Okay.” And he said — I work in the stock market. He said, “How have you been this week with the stock market the way it is?” I said, “Well, thank God that I’m on a jury. I haven’t had to hear anything. I haven’t had to deal with what’s going on.” And he said, “What kind of case are you on?” And I said, “Well, it is a criminal case.” And he said, “Who is the Judge?” And I said “... [Judge Hamlin].” ... And he said, “Oh, that’s the John Murphy case. He’s got another one too.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 497 F. Supp. 2d 47 - Murphy v. Thompson

3. “Absolutely. I think it is completely irrelevant to this matter at hand. And in this country, you’re innocent until proven guilty. And it is completely irrelevant as far as I’m concerned. And I only mentioned it because I thought the defendant was entitled to have, you know, the best, fairest hearing possible, which is why I wanted to bring it up to everybody’s attention. It has no impact on me whatsoever.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 497 F. Supp. 2d 47 - Murphy v. Thompson