351 Pa. Super. 79 - Commonwealth v. Haber’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

55 state decisions

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 55 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “(a) General rule — An out-of-court statement made by a child victim or witness, who at the time the statement was made was 12 years of age or younger, describing physical abuse, indecent contact or any of the offenses enumerated in 18 Pa.C.S. Ch. 31 (relating to sexual offenses) performed with or on the child by another, not otherwise admissible by statute or rule of evidence, is admissible in evidence in any criminal proceeding if: (1) the court finds, in an in camera hearing, that the evidence is relevant and that the time, content and circumstances of the statement provide sufficient indicia of reliability; and (2) the child either: (i) testifies at the proceeding; or (ii) is unavailable as a witness.”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. 402 Pa. Super. 257 - Commonwealth v. Smith · 2006 Pa. Super. 328 - Commonwealth v. Cesar

2. “that (A) the statement is offered as evidence of a material fact; (B) the statement is more probative on the point for which it is offered than any other evidence which the proponent can procure through reasonable efforts; and (C) the general purposes of [the Rules of Evidence] and the interest of justice will best be served by admission of the statement into evidence.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. State v. D.R. · 214 N.J. Super. 278 - State v. DR

3. “In Haber , the victims were aged four and five at the time of the alleged sexual abuse. Furthermore, the five-year-old victim in that case was not permitted to testify to the identity of the alleged molester. However, the mothers of both victims were permitted to testify at trial as to what the victims had told them about the molestation, which included statements from the victims concerning the identity of the assailant. We noted that ‘this testimony was crucial to the Commonwealth’s case because the testimony of the children themselves consisted mostly of monosyllabic answers to leading questions, and both children repeatedly stated that they were unable to remember details about what happened. The Haber court further noted that the testimony of both mothers were [sic] admitted despite the limitation on the one victim’s testimony, which prevented her from being questioned about her identification of her molester. For this reason, we held in Haber that the testimony of the victims’ mothers as to what their children had told them was inadmissible hearsay. Here, unlike Haber , the victim is fifteen years old, was available at trial for full cross-examination, and the case against appellant was fully established through the victim’s testimony. The out-of-court testimony here did not include details concerning elements of the offense that the victim herself was unable to provide. Thus, Haber does not require reversal in this case.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Preston