Commonwealth v. Furman’s Empirical Analysis
1905
Citation profile
13 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 13 later decisions — most recently October 1978
13 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
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 13 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““ ‘The substantial test of the competency of an infant witness is his intelligence, and his comprehension of an obligation to tell the truth. The truth is what the law, under the rules of evidence, is seeking, and if a full and present understanding of the obligation to tell it is shown by the witness, the nature of his conception of the obligation is of secondary importance ... the witness clearly comprehended the difference between truth and falsehood, and his duty to tell the truth. That was the substance of qualification as a witness. The trial judge in whose discretion the matter very largely rested was satisfied of the competency of the boy, and we are of opinion that his discretion was well exercised.’ (Emphasis added.) Commonwealth v. Furman, 211 Pa. 549, 550 , 60 A. 1089 ; Commonwealth v. Troy, 274 Pa. 265, 270 , 118 A. 252 .””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.