Commonwealth v. Venable’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 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 3 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “In determining the validity of a given consent, the Commonwealth bears the burden of establishing that a consent is the product of an essentially free and unconstrained choice-not the result of duress or coercion, express or implied, or a will overborne-under the totality of the circumstances. The standard for measuring the scope of a person's consent is based on an objective evaluation of what a reasonable person would have understood by the exchange between the officer and the person who gave the consent. Such evaluation includes an objective examination of the maturity, sophistication and mental or emotional state of the defendant. Gauging the scope of a defendant's consent is an inherent and necessary part of the process of determining, on the totality of the circumstances presented, whether the consent is objectively valid, or instead the product of coercion, deceit, or misrepresentation. While there is no hard and fast list of factors evincing voluntariness, some considerations include: 1) the defendant's custodial status; 2) the use of duress or coercive tactics by law enforcement personnel; 3) the defendant's knowledge of his right to refuse to consent; 4) the defendant's education and intelligence; 5) the defendant's belief that no incriminating evidence will be found; and 6) the extent and level of the defendant's cooperation with the law enforcement personnel.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Krenzel

2. “[I]t is not necessary that the police completely review changes in the law, from the time of a motorist's previous arrest or DUI-related schooling until the motorist's next traffic stop. [An appellant's] ignorance of the most recent Supreme Court decisional law did not impose upon the police [ ] an affirmative duty to provide her with an update on criminal procedure prior to requesting a blood-draw. Neither our state nor the federal constitution compels our police officers to serve as road-side law professors. Given the foregoing, [an appellant's] personal failure to realize that the Supreme Court's issuance of Birchfield struck down § 3804(c)'s enhanced criminal penalties is irrelevant. [...Believing] that our Commonwealth's enhanced penalties remained in full force and effect [... was a m]isconception [ ] predicated upon a fundamentally flawed view of our federalism.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Krenzel

3. “Repeat DUI offenders, owing to past legal transgressions, are not entitled to a benefit that would be unavailable to first-time DUI offenders. ... The absurdity of [such an] argument is self-evident.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Krenzel