Sanders v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis
1932
Citation profile
14 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 14 later decisions — most recently August 2002
14 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. Commonwealth · Thornton v. State · Childers v. Commonwealth · Adams v. People · McGeorge v. Commonwealth
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 14 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“"* * * a person who by actual assault or threat of violence causes another person to do an act resulting in physical or corporal injury causing such other person's death is criminally responsible for the homicide. However, to render a person criminally responsible for the death of another under such circumstances, it must appear beyond and to the exclusion of every reasonable doubt (1) that the act or acts done by the deceased to avoid the danger brought about and caused by the defendant were such as a reasonable person would have taken under the circumstances, although it need not appear that there was no other way of avoiding the danger or escaping therefrom, (2) that the apprehension on the part of the deceased was of immediate danger of suffering death or great bodily harm, (3) that the apprehension on the part of the deceased of suffering death or great bodily harm was reasonable and well-grounded and (4) that the injuries received by the deceased which produced death were the natural and probable consequences of the acts of the defendant. In such cases, the defendant's responsibility or justification for such homicide is measured and determined by what would have been the case had the defendant killed such person at the time and place and under the circumstances of the original assault or threat of violence."”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“. ‘‘The alleged incompetent evidence', the admission of which appellant contends was prejudicial, is that relative to assaults made upon his wife on occasions prior to her death. This evidence was admitted for the sole purpose of showing the state of feeling on the part of the accused- towards the deceased, and the jury was so instructed. It was clearly admissible for that purpose.””
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. State v. Myers
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.