Hall v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis
1987
Citation profile
38 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 38 later decisions — most recently January 2013 · most notably Satcher v. Commonwealth (1992), Jones v. Ford Motor Co. (2002)
38 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 Dombrowski v. Pfister · LeVasseur v. Commonwealth · United States v. De Sisto · Manetta v. Commonwealth · Carroll v. Downes
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 38 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“It is fundamental to the right of cross-examination that a witness who is not a party to the case on trial may be impeached by prior statements made by the witness which are inconsistent with his present testimony, provided a foundation is first laid by calling his attention to the statement and then questioning him about it before it is introduced in evidence.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[T]he quoted passage above shows that the statement was read into evidence, even if not admitted in written form. “The effect of that procedure on the jury was the same as if the statement had been formally introduced, and the court’s refusal to admit the statement in evidence is immaterial.” The record shows the trial court determined that the jury had heard the relevant portions of the statement as it related to impeachment. Once the jury has heard the relevant portions of the prior inconsistent statement during cross-examination, whether the written statement itself is admitted into evidence is “a distinction without a difference.” Because the trial court determined that admission of the written statement would have added nothing not already in the record, we cannot conclude that the trial court abused its discretion in refusing to admit the transcript.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[T]he common-law rules of evidence, to which we adhere, have consistently required that when such statements are offered for impeachment, the opposing party is entitled, upon request, to a cautionary instruction advising the jury that the statements are to be considered only insofar as they may affect the credibility of the witness, and may not be considered as proof of the truth of their content.”
1 later decision 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.