278 Pa. Super. 581 - Commonwealth v. Short’s Empirical Analysis
1980
Citation profile
51 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 51 later decisions — most recently March 2013 · most notably 381 Pa. Super. 1 - Commonwealth v. Anderson (1988), 325 Pa. Super. 401 - Commonwealth v. Hamm (1984)
51 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 Aguilar v. Texas · Spinelli v. United States · Santoni v. United States · Cogdell v. United States · Commonwealth v. Bighum
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 51 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“(1) capacity to observe or perceive the occurrence with a substantial degree of accuracy; (2) ability to remember the event which was observed or perceived; (3) ability to understand questions and to communicate intelligent answers about the occurrence, and (4) consciousness of the duty to speak the truth.”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage“There is more to a child’s consciousness of the duty to speak the truth than being able to give a clear example of a lie or to understand the concept of an “oath.” In fact, the trial judge’s opportunity to observe the demeanor, alertness, thoughtfulness, and sincerity of a child witness may be more informative than the answers the child gives to questions such as “What is a lie?” and “What will happen to you if you tell a lie?””
3 later decisions quote this exact passage“[C]ompetency of a witness is presumed, and the burden falls on the objecting party to demonstrate incompetency. Rosche v. McCoy, 397 Pa. 615 , 156 A.2d 307 (1959); Commonwealth v. Mangello, supra. When the witness is under fourteen years of age, there must be a searching judicial inquiry as to mental capacity, but discretion nonetheless resides in the trial judge to make the ultimate decision as to competency.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage
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.