Commonwealth v. King’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 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 3 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““[J]ust because the victim allegedly punched the defendant . . . [h]e doesn’t have the right to punch back, and he certainly does not have the right to use excessive force, force beyond what was used against him. . . . Now, we heard the defendant take the stand. He didn’t suffer any injuries that we heard of. There was no testimony about any injuries, but we do know about the victim’s injuries in this case. So, we know that if the victim did indeed punch first, the defendant punched back with force, excessive, beyond what was used against him, to the point where the victim suffered lacerations to the forehead, fractured eye socket, . . . facial fractures . . . substantial injuries, where ... the defendant says, 7 was just punched in the face.’ ””

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