261 Pa. Super. 183 - Commonwealth v. Sweitzer’s Empirical Analysis
1978
Citation profile
33 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 33 later decisions — most recently April 1990 · most notably 298 Pa. Super. 199 - Commonwealth v. Jones (1982), 298 Pa. Super. 397 - Commonwealth v. Hollerbush (1982)
33 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 Anders v. California · Commonwealth Ex Rel. Washington v. Maroney · Commonwealth v. Story · Commonwealth v. Dancer · Commonwealth v. Sullivan
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 33 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“... a PCHA petitioner has the burden of establishing his grounds for postconviction relief____ In particular, the burden of establishing ineffectiveness of trial counsel is on appellant____ The PCHA court has discretion to disbelieve testimony; thus, self-serving or uncorroborated statements on petitioner’s behalf do not shift and do not necessarily sustain petitioner’s burden of proof, even when the Commonwealth presents no rebuttal evidence.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““. . . [CJounsel’s assistance is deemed constitutionally effective once we are able to conclude that the particular course chosen by counsel had some reasonable basis designed to effectuate his client’s interests. The testis not whether other alternatives were more reasonable, employing a hindsight evaluation of the record. Although weigh the alternatives we must, the balance tips in favor of a finding of effective assistance as soon as it is determined that trial counsel’s decisions had any reasonable basis.” (Emphasis in original.) (Footnote omitted.)”
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.