Roach v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis
1996
Citation profile
9 federal appellate · 89 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 107 later decisions — most recently December 2013 · most notably Goins v. Commonwealth (1996), Johnson v. Commonwealth (2000)
9 federal appellate · 89 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 Schneckloth v. Bustamonte · Furman v. Georgia · Soberon v. United States · Miller v. Fenton · Sowashee Venture v. EB, Inc.
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 107 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The verdict of the jury shall be in writing, and in one of the following forms: (1) "We, the jury, on the issue joined, having found the defendant guilty of (here set out statutory language of the offense charged) and that (after consideration of his prior history that there is a probability that he would commit criminal acts of violence that would constitute a continuing serious threat to society) or his conduct in committing the offense is outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible or inhuman in that it involved (torture) (depravity of mind) (aggravated battery to the victim), and having considered the evidence in mitigation of the offense, unanimously fix his punishment at death”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[t]he Commonwealth need not corroborate an entire confession, ... it must corroborate the elements of the corpus delicti.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“It is undoubtedly true that a sound and wise policy should keep these great departments of the government as separate and distinct from each other as practicable. But it is equally true that experience has shown that no government could be administered where an absolute and unqualified adherence to that maxim was enforced. The universal construction of this maxim in practice has been that the whole power of one of these departments should not be exercised by the same hands which possess the whole power of either of the other departments, but that either department may exercise the powers of another to a limited extent.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. In Re Phillips
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.