361 Pa. Super. 261 - Commonwealth v. Bright’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

20 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 20 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Now, members of the jury, obviously the defendant cannot be guilty unless he was at the scene of the alleged crime. Now, you heard from the defendant and from his witnesses and they offered evidence to show that he wasn’t present and you’ll recall what they said. You should consider this evidence along with all other evidence in the case in determining whether or not the Commonwealth has met its burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime was committed and that the defendant himself committed those crimes. The defendant’s evidence that he was not present, either itself or together with other evidence, may be sufficient to raise a reasonable doubt of his guilt in your minds. If you have a reasonable doubt of the defendant’s guilt you must find him not guilty.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 407 Pa. Super. 94 - Commonwealth v. Gaines

2. “[W]e do not interpret Pounds as creating standard language for an alibi instruction. So long as the trial judge makes it clear that the defendant’s failure to prove an alibi defense is not tantamount to guilt, the Pounds safeguards are preserved.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 385 Pa. Super. 9 - Commonwealth v. Payne