Smith v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis
1946
Citation profile
47 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 47 later decisions — most recently September 1999 · most notably Webb v. Commonwealth (1963), Snyder v. Commonwealth (1961)
47 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 Bowie v. Commonwealth · Nicholas v. Commonwealth · Burton & Conquest v. Commonwealth · Harrison v. Commonwealth · Cochran v. Commonwealth
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 47 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Where facts are established which are susceptible of two interpretations, one of which is consistent with the innocence of the accused, the jury or the judge trying the case cannot arbitrarily adopt the interpretation which incriminates him. The interpretation more favorable to the accused should be adopted unless it is untenable under all the facts and circumstances of the case.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“where a fact which is equally susceptible of two interpretations, one of which is consistent with the interpretation of the accused, . . . the [fact finder may not] arbitrarily adopt that interpretation which incriminates [the accused].”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“[i]n order for inferences to amount to evidence they must be inferences based on facts that are proved, and not inferences based on other inferences.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. McQuinn v. Com.
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.