309 Pa. Super. 367 - Commonwealth v. Johnson’s Empirical Analysis
1982
Citation profile
36 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 36 later decisions — most recently March 2012 · most notably Commonwealth v. Harris (1997), 316 Pa. Super. 215 - Commonwealth v. Buehl (1983)
36 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 Duncan v. State of Louisiana · In re Oliver · Globe Newspaper Company v. Superior Court for County of Norfolk · Hopt v. People of the Territory of Utah · Costello v. United States
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 36 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Appellant’s final argument is that he was denied his right to a public trial by the trial court’s refusal to allow spectators to enter or exit the courtroom during the court’s charge to the jury. In response to this claim, the trial court stated: ‘The doors of the courtroom squeak audibly on opening and closing causing a distraction. We believe we have the duty and discretion to protect the proceeding from interruptions. (Citations omitted). Moreover, our order did not exclude the public; those that were already inside the courtroom could remain; those that were not were not precluded from entering before the charge. During the charge a court officer was posted outside to admit any member of the public that had immediate business before the Court. The closing of the court was brief and reasonable under the circumstances, far from the hyperbolized complaint that defendant was denied a public trial. The witnesses, defendant’s family and friends and some spectators, as well as the jury, provided the elements of a public trial. The trial remained a public one at all times.’ Trial court opinion at 9-10. Members of the public were free to remain in the courtroom during the court’s charge. Thus, the protections guaranteed by the right to a public trial were not offended, and we reject appellant’s claim.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“The guarantee of a public trial in a criminal case is not for the protection of only the accused. The victim, in particular, and the community, in general, are also within the guarantee. “[I]f people care to use the courts, they must trust them. Courts achieve this goal by allowing people to observe, study, and compare them with other methods of rendering disputes.” (Citations omitted.)”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“fact that a courtroom cannot accommodate everyone is no reason for accommodating no one.”
1 later decision 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.