Commonwealth v. Moore’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate · 55 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 61 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[A]n appellate court may affirm a valid judgment based on any reason appearing as of record, regardless of whether it is raised by appellee.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Radecki · Commonwealth v. McCarthy

2. “We started, Ladies and Gentlemen, with the motive. And you know something, I don’t have to prove motive. That is not the same thing as intent. But motive lets you know why, why this happened, although quite frankly the why is never enough. [The victim] was the defendant’s prey. He enjoyed taunting him, robbing him, assaulting him. [The .victim] correctly feared this defendant up to the day he died. And for that [the victim] was ridiculed once again.... Do we not remember [the victim’s father] said from the very beginning that [appellant] was a problem for his son? [The victim’s sister] told you he used to try to bully my brother every time he saw him. Every time. Not just one little fight some time ago. That is not what we’re talking about here. That evidence was given to you so that you knew what ill will there was, what malice there was in this man and how he treated [the victim]. It tells you the why. The events that happened after that go further because to understand a bully, this bully, and how he acted when [the victim] finally, vainly tried to defend himself, is to understand how the end came.”

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

3. “As Appellant observes, the jury had revealed its numerical split to the trial court. When the jury voluntarily reveals such information, a number of courts have observed that the judge has a heightened duty to avoid utilizing coercive language in its supplemental charge. See, e.g., Desmond v. State, 654 A.2d 821, 827 (Del.1994). Although the trial court sought further information concerning the nature of the jury's numerical division . . ., the trial court did not utilize this information in the instructions that followed. Instead, the trial court focused upon the relatively brief amount of time that the jury had deliberated and instructed them to "[g]o back, have open minds, try to deliberate and see if you can make the agreement unanimous." . . . Although Appellant maintains that the trial court was speaking solely to the holdout juror, we conclude that the trial court's instruction was directed to all of the jurors, particularly as the impetus for the instruction stemmed from the brief period of time that the jury had deliberated.”

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