Bell v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis
1938
Citation profile
2 federal appellate · 52 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 54 later decisions — most recently November 2010 · most notably Commonwealth v. Welansky (1944), Cable v. Commonwealth (1992)
2 federal appellate · 52 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 Pine v. Commonwealth · Cain v. State · Mundy v. Commonwealth · Goodman v. Commonwealth · State v. Wilbanks
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 54 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The precise grade of such a homicide, whether murder or manslaughter, depends upon the facts of the particular case. One, however, who accidentally kills another, even though he may be chargeable with some actionable negligence, is not guilty of a crime, unless his negligence is so gross and culpable as to indicate a callous disregard of human life and of the probable consequences of his act. The crime is imputed because of recklessness, and where there is no recklessness there is no crime.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“The courts and the authorities agree, in the absence of statutory regulations, that a higher degree of negligence is required to establish criminal negligence than to establish liability in a civil action .... It is a recklessness or indifference incompatible with a proper regard for human life. It must be shown that a homicide was not improbable under all of the facts existing at the time, and that the knowledge of such facts should have had an influence on the conduct of the offender.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“The cumulative effect of a series of connected, or independent negligent acts”
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.