Fuller v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis
1949
Citation profile
11 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 11 later decisions — most recently December 2015
11 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 Berman v. United States · Slayton v. Commonwealth · Sturgill 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 11 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“that in the absence of statute the pronouncement of sentence is a prerequisite to the finality of a judgment. Consequently, where an appeal is limited to a final judgment, an order wherein the pronouncement of sentence is suspended is ordinarily not appealable. But the legislature may, of course, by appropriate statute permit an appeal from, or a writ of error to, such a judgment or order. This may be done either by express language granting the right of review of such an order, or by giving the judgment or order the necessary characteristics of a final judgment so as to be reviewable under the general law.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“After the trial court has adjudged the defendant 'guilty' and has suspended either 'the imposition or the execution of sentence, or commitment’ of the defendant, and has fixed the terms of his probation, it has made a complete disposition of the case within the purview of the statute. Its action is then final and subject to review [on appeal].”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“to say that a defendant must surrender his right to a suspension of the imposition of sentence and submit to a judgment, perhaps branding him a felon, as a condition to his right of appeal, would strip this highly remedial statute of much of its usefulness. New defendants would be so bold as to swap the certainty of escape from punishment, offered by a suspension of imposition of sentence or a suspension of execution of sentence, for the uncertainty of escape through a possible reversal of the judgment on appeal. Clearly, we think, the statute does not contemplate that [a] defendant should be put in that position.”
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.