2012 Pa. Super. 31 - Commonwealth v. Foley’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

7 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 7 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “First, the party opposing the evidence must show that the scientific evidence is "novel" by demonstrating that there is a legitimate dispute regarding the reliability of the expert's conclusions. If the moving party has identified novel scientific evidence, then the proponent of the scientific evidence must show that the expert's methodology has general acceptance in the relevant scientific community despite the legitimate dispute.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Nevels · 2014 Pa. Super. 131 - Commonwealth v. Safka

2. “[t]he trial court may exercise its discretion in deciding whether to admit evidence, and our review of the trial court’s evidentiary decisions is limited to determining whether the trial court abused its discretion. The trial court abuse[s] its discretion only if the court’s ruling reflects manifest unreasonableness, or partiality, prejudice, bias, or ill-will, or such lack of support to be clearly erroneous.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 2014 Pa. Super. 44 - Commonwealth v. Orie

3. “[N]ovelty is not restricted to new science, and even bedrock scientific principles may be subject to a Frye analysis if those principles become disputed. Conversely, where there is no dispute, Frye should be construed narrowly so as not to impede admissibility of evidence that will aid the trier of fact in the search for truth.”

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