2010 Pa. Super. 185 - Commonwealth v. Brooks’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

21 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 21 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “It is the duty of the prosecution to ‘fix the date when an alleged offense occurred with reasonable certainty’... The purpose of so advising a defendant of the date when an offense is alleged to have been committed is to provide him with sufficient notice to meet the charges and prepare a defense. However, ‘due process is not reducible to a mathematical formula,’ and the Commonwealth does not always need to prove a specific date of an alleged crime ... Additionally, ‘indictments must be read in a common sense manner and are not to be construed in an overly technical sense’... Permissible leeway regarding the date varies with, inter alia, the nature of the crime and the rights of the accused ... Case law has further ‘established that the Commonwealth must be afforded broad latitude when attempting to fix the date of offenses which involve a continuous course of criminal conduct’... This is especially true when the case involves a sexual offense against a child victim.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 2017 Pa. Super. 212 - Commonwealth v. Weimer · Commonwealth v. Roane

2. “[I]n the light most favorable to the Commonwealth. The reviewing court may not weigh the evidence or substitute its judgment for that of the trial court. The clear and convincing standard requires evidence that is so clear, direct, weighty and convincing as to enable [the trier of fact] to come to a clear conviction, without hesitancy, of the truth of the precise facts [at] issue.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 2014 Pa. Super. 151 - Commonwealth v. Prendes

3. “examine whether the evidence admitted at trial, and all reasonable inferences drawn therefrom, viewed in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth as verdict winner, support the jury's finding of all the elements of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt. The Commonwealth may sustain its burden by means of wholly circumstantial evidence.”

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