Commonwealth v. Acosta’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

12 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 12 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “whether any rational fact finder could have found all essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 92 Mass. App. Ct. 1130 - Commonwealth v. Castillo · 93 Mass. App. Ct. 1111 - Commonwealth v. Qadir

2. “distinctive packaging indicative or suggestive of distribution; possession of large quantities of drugs; the presence of implements or paraphernalia indicative of the drug trade; and the 'presence of cash in combination with pagers or other accoutrements of the drug trade' found on the defendant.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 92 Mass. App. Ct. 1109 - Commonwealth v. Renzi

3. “premised on facts that [the expert] had gratuitously assumed and conjecture drawn from an insufficient evidentiary foundation . . . [is] inherently flawed and legally incompetent.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 87 Mass. App. Ct. 162 - Souza