Commonwealth v. Bishop’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 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 2 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[A] trial judge has no authority to weigh the sufficiency of the evidence prior to trial or to summarily dismiss indictments in criminal cases. Commonwealth v. Hayden, 489 S.W.2d 513, 516 (Ky.1972); Barth v. Commonwealth, 80 S.W.3d 390, 404 (Ky.2001); Flynt v. Commonwealth, 105 S.W.3d 415, 425 (Ky.2003). However, there are certain circumstances where trial judges are permitted to dismiss criminal indictments in the pre-trial stage. These include the unconstitutionality of the criminal statute, Hayden, 489 S.W.2d at 514-515 ; prosecutorial misconduct that prejudices the defendant, Commonwealth v. Hill, 228 S.W.3d 15, 17 (Ky.App.2007); a defect in the grand jury proceeding, Partin v. Commonwealth, 168 S.W.3d 23, 30-31 (Ky.2005); an insufficiency on the face of the indictment, Thomas v. Commonwealth, 931 S.W.2d 446 (Ky. 1996); or a lack of jurisdiction by the court itself, RCr 8.18.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Buckler v. Commonwealth