Macon v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis
1948
Citation profile
3 federal appellate · 20 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 25 later decisions — most recently May 1998 · most notably State v. Phillips (1954), Ganger v. Peyton (1967)
3 federal appellate · 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. Commonwealth · Malbon v. Davis · Omohundro v. Commonwealth · Terry 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 25 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“While the laws of the State vest in this officer [prosecuting attorney] wide authority in instituting prosecutions, such authority carries with it a commensurate responsibility. It should be exercised with caution and only in cases where, after a proper investigation, he is reasonably satisfied of the guilt of the person suspected of crime. It is just as much his duty to protect his fellow citizens from unjustified prosecutions as it is to prosecute those who are guilty.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Ganger v. Peyton
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.