Commonwealth v. Barnak’s Empirical Analysis
1947
Citation profile
79 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 79 later decisions — most recently July 1982 · most notably Commonwealth v. Kloiber (1954), Commonwealth v. Rose (1974)
79 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 v. Libonati · Commonwealth v. New · Commonwealth v. Colandro · Commonwealth v. Vallone · Commonwealth v. Malone
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 79 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“While this court has approved instructions in homicide cases to the effect that when an alibi is set up the defendant must, in order to have it avail him, prove it by a fair preponderance of the evidence, yet if the evidence in support of his alibi falls short of being preponderating evidence but does raise a reasonable doubt of his guilt he must be acquitted, such instructions constitute an anomaly which it would be well if trial judges would hereafter not repeat. . . . It would be better if the jury was instructed, when the defense of an alibi is set up, that the burden remains on the Commonwealth to prove every essential element of the case, including the defendant's presence at the scene of the homicide when, as in the instant case, that is a material element in the case.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“. . . `it will be for you, if you are otherwise convinced of the defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, to take into consideration the defense of alibi that has been raised by the defendant'. . . `even though you might find that the alibi does not exclude the possibility of John Barnak having committed the crime, [which was equivalent to saying that if the evidence as to the alibi was not established by a fair preponderance of the evidence] you have the right to use the shortness of time as creating in your mind a reasonable doubt of the defendant's guilt, if the shortness of the time does create such a doubt in your mind.'”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“In the instant case the charge was far more favorable to the accused than was the charge in Rudy v. Com., supra, where the trial judge said: `If he [the defendant] failed to do so [i.e., prove his alibi] to the satisfaction of the jury, the alleged alibi, as a substantive defense, was valueless.' This court held that that was not prejudicial error. In Commonwealth v. Barrish, supra, the trial judge said the jury must `”
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.