Commonwealth v. McClanahan’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

18 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 19 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““It is manifest from Sheeran’s (the detective’s) testimony that he deliberately planned to entrap appellee into a confession of guilt, and the circumstances under which the confession was obtained show that it resulted from methods both artful and deceptive, that must have so agitated the mind of appellee and aroused his fear as to have a coercive effect; therefore the confession was not voluntary. The course of interrogation followed -by Sheeran, the character of the questions propounded, the artful laying of the plan in the outset to contradict him, and the seductive suggestions throughout the interviews tending to convince appellee of the necessity of his making a confession and of the hopelessness of his denial of guilt were sufficient to break down his power of resistance and leave him at the mercy of the inquisitor. The act, supra, was intended to prevent and destroy just such methods as were here employed and to punish those who employ them. We do not mean to hold that a voluntary confession may not be made by one charged with crime and under arrest, for such confessions have often been admitted and will yet be admitted by the courts as competent, but it should come from the defendant under such circumstances as show it to be made of his free will and with full and perfect knowledge of its nature and consequences, free from the dictation or coercion of others.””

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

2. ““That what is commonly known as ‘sweating’ is hereby defined to be the questioning of a person in custody charged with crime in an attempt to obtain information from him concerning his connection with crime or knowledge thereof, after he has been arrested and in custody, as stated, by plying him with questions or by threats or other wrongful means, extorting from him information to be used against him as testimony upon his trial for such alleged crime.””

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

3. ““Proof of a confession is never admissible unless it is voluntarily made, and by the word ‘voluntary’ it is meant that the confession must be made of the free will and accord of the defendant without coercion, whether from fear of any threat of harm, promise or inducement by hope of reward or method known as sweating.””

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