Bevel v. Com.’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 9 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “the adoption of such a policy and the designation of how and in what court such a determination should be made is more appropriately decided by the legislature, not the courts”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. Wyatt v. McDermott · Commonwealth v. Hernandez

2. “is unclear, with little or no evidence * of its application prior to the late nineteenth century.... These early decisions were occasionally quite terse and provide little insight into the reasons the courts elected to abate a case or not, or even as to what aspect of the case was being abated -- the appeal only or the entire prosecution”

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

3. “The public policy of the Commonwealth is determined by the General Assembly [because] it is the responsibility of the legislature, and not the judiciary,... to strike the appropriate balance between competing interests.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. Wyatt v. McDermott