Commonwealth v. Sosa’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. “defendant had a constitutional right to silence, not a right to tell a story and then avoid explaining crucial omissions by stating they were an exercise of the right to silence. The omission of facts from one statement that are contained in another statement is not silence within the meaning of Doyle.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Lodge · 92 Mass. App. Ct. 1116 - Commonwealth v. Jean-Baptiste

2. “The animating concern in Doyle was that a defendant's silence in the wake of receiving the Miranda warnings may be nothing more than an exercise of those rights, which renders his silence 'insolubly ambiguous' on questions of guilt or innocence.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Lodge · Commonwealth v. Richard

3. “a defendant who voluntarily speaks after receiving Miranda warnings has not been induced to remain silent. As to the subject matter of his statements, the defendant has not remained silent at all.”

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