Sutherland v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis
1909
Citation profile
20 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 21 later decisions — most recently February 2013
20 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on United States v. Wiltberger · Ladd v. State · Harris v. Commonwealth · Lescallett v. Commonwealth · Cunningham v. State
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 21 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The maxim is founded on the tenderness of the law for the rights of individuals, and on the plain principle that the power of punishment is vested in the legislature and not in the judicial department. No man incurs a penalty unless the act which subjects him to it is clearly within the spirit and letter of the statute which imposes such penalty. There can be no constructive offenses, and before a man can be punished his case must be plainly and unmistakably within the statute. If these principles are violated, the fate of the accused is determined by the arbitrary discretion of the judges and not by the express authority of the law.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“The purpose of the statute was to interdict the practice of carrying a deadly weapon about the person, concealed, and yet so accessible as to afford prompt and immediate use. “About the person” must mean that it is so connected with the person as to be readily accessible for use or surprise if desired. A pistol in a scabbard and in a pair of saddle-bags with the lids down, though the saddle-bags be in the hand, does not fall within the language of the statute,.. .”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“If any person carry about his person, hid from common observation, any pistol, ... he shall be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor, ...”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.