Smith v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis
1944
Citation profile
20 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 22 later decisions — most recently July 2000
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 Johnson v. United States · Miller v. Commonwealth · 124 W. Va. 4 - State v. Friedman · Bell v. Commonwealth · Commonwealth v. Fortier
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 22 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[T]o confine the cross-examination of the accused to such matters as have been brought out on direct examination is “palpably unfair to the prosecution,” for since it can not call him as a witness or compel him to testify on direct examina tion, unless it could develop relevant facts on his cross-examination it might be deprived of all means of proving them, and this, too, although the accused, by voluntarily taking the stand, had waived the privilege of self-incrimination.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority““If any person, other than a common carrier, shall have, possess, keep, carry, ship or transport alcoholic beverages which have been illegally acquired by such person or any person for whom he is acting, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. “Spirits in the possession of any person and in containers not bearing the required government stamps or seals shall be deemed for the purposes of this chapter to have been illegally acquired.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“In any case of felony or misdemeanor, the accused may be sworn and examined in his own behalf, and if so sworn and examined, he shall be deemed to have waived his privilege of not giving evidence against himself, and shall be subject to cross-examination as any other witness; but his failure to testify shall create no presumption against him, nor be the subject of any comment before the court or jury by the prosecuting attorney.”
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.