2001 Pa. Super. 242 - Commonwealth v. Showers’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 federal appellate · 2 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 5 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Whether trial counsel provided ineffective assistance of counsel under the state and federal constitutions where he failed to: (A) investigate and pursue a forensic, medical — scientific defense and call an available forensic pathologist to establish that the prosecution’s theory of homicide was impossible in light of forensic analysis of its own immutable physical evidence, which also proved the manner of death was suicide; (B) object to the Coroner’s improper expert opinion that the manner of death was homicide, based upon his detailed recap of the police investigation and ongoing thought processes of investigator’s; (C) object to the prosecution’s pathologist’s improper so-called “clinical history” of the case, another “recap” of the investigation; (D) object to yet another “recap” of the investigation by the final witness, a state trooper, whose recap and explanation of his thought processes was essentially a preview of closing argument, but, largely, not evidence; and (E) to move to suppress illegally obtained bank records and tax returns. Whether new appellate counsel provided ineffective assistance of counsel under the state and federal constitutions where he failed to raise any of the foregoing instances of trial counsel’s constitutionally inadequate representation, which appellate counsel correctly believed to be of arguable merit.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 586 F. Supp. 2d 310 - Showers v. Beard

2. “We see no reason to conclude that the jury would have reached a different verdict were it presented with an expert witness whose testimony would have provided the same basis for defense counsel to argue as did the expert of the Commonwealth. There was no factual dispute concerning the bitter taste of the Roxanol, nor was there a dispute that the contents of the victim’s stomach did not include a sweet substance, such as fruit juice, that would mask the taste of the Roxanol. We will not find inevitably ineffective a defense that failed to refute with its own expert that which, arguably, had not been established by a Commonwealth expert witness.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 586 F. Supp. 2d 310 - Showers v. Beard