Commonwealth v. Brown’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

15 state decisions

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 18 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “After the jury in this case reached its decision to enter a verdict recommending a death sentence, the district attorney lost any prosecutorial discretion to alter that verdict. If the law were otherwise, district attorneys would have the powers of courts, while courts would be reduced to mere rubber stamps.... [I]f the "power" of a court amounts to nothing more than the power "to do exactly what the parties tell it to do, simply because they said so and without any actual merits review, it is not judicial power at all. It is a restriction on power." Finally, we note that the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office, through the exercise of its prosecutorial discretion, actively sought and obtained a death sentence for [the petitioner]. It cannot now seek to implement a different result based upon the differing views of the current office holder with respect to the prior exercise of prosecutorial discretion. Elections alone cannot occasion efforts to reverse the result of judicial proceedings obtained by the prior office holder. Every conviction and sentence would remain constantly in flux, subject to reconsideration based upon the changing tides of the election cycles.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. Wharton v. Vaughn

2. “to do exactly what the parties tell it to do, simply because they said so and without any actual merits review, it is not judicial power at all. It is a restriction on power.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. Wharton v. Vaughn

3. “We review the denial of PCRA relief to decide whether the PCRA court's factual determinations are supported by the record and are free of legal error.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Medina