Commonwealth v. Miller’s Empirical Analysis
1984
Citation profile
2 state decisions
Relationships
Relies on Commonwealth v. Wexler · 244 Pa. Super. 62 - Commonwealth v. Malone · Commonwealth v. Armstrong · 270 Pa. Super. 350 - Commonwealth v. Iacino · 263 Pa. Super. 349 - Commonwealth v. Rose
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 2 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“We read the unequivocal language in Wexler to foreclose explicitly a hearing court from continuing to shift the burden of persuasion to the petitioner seeking expungement merely because the Commonwealth made out a prima facie case of guilt on the part of the petitioner. [Footnote reads, in part: “Without continuing this discussion farther, suffice it to say that Mueller is no longer a viable decision on the burden of proof controversy, having been overruled sub silentio by Wexler.”] Thus, under Wexler , the burden to present compelling evidence against expungement is placed upon the Commonwealth if it has failed to establish the accused’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt (e.g., before the court of common pleas,) or the Commonwealth “admits that it is unable to bear its burden of proof.” Id. Since the appellant, instantly, was not tried in the court of common pleas, we are left with the determination of whether the Commonwealth’s admission that “[t]he suppression order precluded [it] from proceeding to trial,” ... is equivalent to, as required by Wexler , an admission that it is unable to bear its burden of proof. We think it is, for nowhere in the Wexler opinion was a caveat created to the two specific circumstances that trigger the Commonwealth’s burden of proof obligation, e.g., where the petitioner has succeeded in terminating his prosecution by “legal technicalities unrelated to questions of guilt or innocence.” In other words, it is noteworthy that Wexler created no excep”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
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.