Commonwealth v. Smith’s Empirical Analysis
1985
Citation profile
19 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 19 later decisions — most recently September 2010
19 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.
Relationships
Relies on Barnes v. American Fertilizer Co. · Virginia Department of Corrections v. Crowley · Fiamengo v. San Francisco · Shelton & Luck v. Sydnor · Smyth v. Godwin
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 19 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The analysis first must take into account the specific nature of a post-conviction bail proceeding and the extent of its link to the criminal prosecution itself. Upon close examination, several obvious aspects of the bail question point to the conclusion that the proceeding is somewhat separate and distinct from the main criminal prosecution. For example, the most striking factor differentiating the proceedings is that guilt or innocence of the accused is not at issue in the bail proceeding. Also, the ultimate burden of proof on entitlement to bail is upon the prisoner and not the Commonwealth. And, from a practical standpoint, appellate issues relating to bail routinely are handled separately from the issues in the criminal prosecution and often are the subject of separate petitions for appeal. Thus, a bail proceeding is not an integral part of the guilt-innocence determination. Rather, it is ancillary to the criminal prosecution.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“If a person sentenced by a circuit court to death or confinement in the state correctional facility indicates an intention to apply for a writ of error, the circuit court shall postpone the execution of such sentence for such time as it may deem proper. In any case after conviction if the sentence, or the execution thereof, is suspended in accordance with this section, or for any other cause, the court, or the judge thereof, may ... set bail in such penalty and for appearance at such time as the nature of the case may require.... ... A writ of error from the Court of Appeals shall lie to any such judgment refusing bail or requiring excessive bail____”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
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.