Commonwealth v. Adams

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• “[T]he degree of force used must be reasonable in the circumstances, with proportionality being the touchstone for assessing reasonableness.”
• “[T]he degree of force used must be reasonable in the circumstances, with proportionality being the touchstone for assessing reasonableness.”
• “Defense of another tracks, and is interwoven with, the elements of self-defense”
• “Defense of another tracks, and is interwoven with, the elements of self-defense”
• elements of defense of another track those of self-defense
• delineating elements of self-defense where nondeadly force is used

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).

Cited by

16 cases in this archive cite this case.

• Commonwealth v. Walker
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 2011-09-21· cited 74×
• Commonwealth v. Gomes
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 2015-01-12· cited 70×
• Commonwealth v. Young
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 2012-01-03· cited 44×
• Commonwealth v. Barbosa
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 2012-08-06· cited 42×
• Commonwealth v. Arias
  Massachusetts Appeals Court· 2013-10-30· cited 17×
• Commonwealth v. Scott
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 2012-10-22· cited 12×
• Commonwealth v. Herndon
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 2016-08-26· cited 6×
• COMMONWEALTH v. TIMOTHY M. LAVIN (and ten companion cases ).
  Massachusetts Appeals Court· 2022-06-23· cited 6×
• State v. Jennings
  Utah Supreme Court· 2026-03-02· cited 1×
• Commonwealth v. Henderson
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 2020-11-30
• Commonwealth v. Delarosa
  Massachusetts Appeals Court· 2017-12-28
• Commonwealth v. Lee
  Massachusetts Appeals Court· 2018-06-15
• Commonwealth v. Brum
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 2023-08-10
• Commonwealth v. Shondell Q. Rateree
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 2025-04-08
• Commonwealth v. Weber Andrade
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 2025-06-04
• State v. Jennings
  Utah Supreme Court· 2025-11-28

Cites

28 cases in this archive are cited by this case; the 20 most cited are listed.

• Commonwealth v. Wright
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 1992-01-15· cited 357×
• People v. Cuevas
  California Supreme Court· 1995-12-26· cited 214×
• Commonwealth v. King
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 2005-09-29· cited 211×
• Commonwealth v. Harrington
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 1980-01-09· cited 175×
• Unnamed case
  Third Circuit· 2001-10-24· cited 130×
• Treadway v. State
  Indiana Supreme Court· 2010-04-08· cited 117×
• Sullivan v. Boston Elevated Railway Co.
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 1916-06-20· cited 97×
• Commonwealth v. Weichell
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 1983-09-02· cited 76×
• Commonwealth v. Martin
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 1976-02-02· cited 71×
• Commonwealth v. Colon
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 2007-05-22· cited 71×
• State v. Ildefonso
  Hawaii Supreme Court· 1992-02-10· cited 64×
• State v. Robinson
  Supreme Court of Minnesota· 2006-07-20· cited 64×
• State v. Whittle
  Utah Supreme Court· 1999-10-08· cited 46×
• Commonwealth v. Cong Duc Le
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 2005-06-02· cited 43×
• Smith v. State
  Mississippi Supreme Court· 2009-11-05· cited 36×
• State v. Shaw
  South Dakota Supreme Court· 2005-10-19· cited 32×
• Commonwealth v. Baseler
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 1995-02-14· cited 32×
• Commonwealth v. Cataldo
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 1996-07-26· cited 28×
• People v. Sykes
  Michigan Court of Appeals· 1998-07-29· cited 24×
• State v. Stoppleworth
  North Dakota Supreme Court· 2003-08-20· cited 21×