341 Pa. Super. 64 - Commonwealth v. Brunner’s Empirical Analysis
1985
Citation profile
27 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 27 later decisions — most recently March 2006 · most notably 392 Pa. Super. 100 - Commonwealth v. Fromal (1990), Giesberg v. State (1998)
27 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 Commonwealth Ex Rel. Washington v. Maroney · Commonwealth v. Miller · Commonwealth v. Bonomo · Commonwealth v. Pounds · Commonwealth v. Wojdak
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 27 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The witness had testified; the alibi evidence was before the jury; and appellant was entitled to a specific instruction from the court regarding its significance. When the trial court failed to deliver the required instruction, counsel had a duty to request it to do so and, if the request was denied, to preserve the court’s error by an appropriate objection. To fail in this respect was so unreasonable that it must be equated with constitutionally ineffective assistance.” 341 Pa.Super. at 70 , 491 A.2d at 153 .”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“[w]here an alibi defense is presented, the trial court must instruct the jury that it should acquit if the alibi evidence, even if not wholly believed, raises a reasonable doubt as to the presence of the defendant at the scene of the crime at the time when the offense was committed. “[S]uch an instruction is necessary due to the danger that the failure to prove the defense will be taken by the jury as a sign of the defendant’s guilt.” Commonwealth v. Pounds, 490 Pa. 621, 633-634 , 417 A.2d 597, 603 (1980). A failure to give a specific alibi instruction, where warranted, is error requiring a new trial. Commonwealth v. Pounds, supra; Commonwealth v. Van Wright, 249 Pa.Super. 451 , 378 A.2d 382 (1977). General instructions on the Commonwealth’s burden of proving each element of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt is not an adequate substitute for a specific alibi instruction. Commonwealth v. Pounds, supra 490 Pa. at 634 , 417 A.2d at 603 . Similarly, a general charge on assessing the credibility of witnesses will not suffice. Commonwealth v. Van Wright, supra 249 Pa.Super. at 458 , 378 A.2d at 386 .”
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.