Commonwealth v. Smith’s Empirical Analysis
2000
Citation profile
12
cited by 12 later decisions
1
states following
June 2017
most recently cited
12 state decisions
Relationships
Relies on Burks v. United States · LaPrade v. Commonwealth · Stover v. Commonwealth · Burton & Conquest v. Commonwealth · Spicer 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 12 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“equally susceptible of two interpretations one of which is consistent with the innocence of the accused, [the trier of fact] cannot arbitrarily adopt that interpretation which incriminates [the accused].”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Jay v. Com.“`Suspicion. . . no matter how strong is insufficient to sustain a criminal conviction.'”
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.