Commonwealth v. Curtis’s Empirical Analysis
1983
Citation profile
3 federal appellate · 22 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 27 later decisions — most recently July 2015 · most notably Commonwealth v. Curtis (1994), Curtis v. Duval (1997)
3 federal appellate · 22 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 Miranda v. State of Arizona Vignera · Simmons v. United States · Hamling v. United States · Washington v. Texas · United States v. Nobles
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.
“[w]e recognize that the assertion by a witness of his Fifth Amendment right may in some cases hinder a defendant's ability to present his most effective defense ... we do not believe that this potential problem justifies creation of a general doctrine of judicial immunity for defense witnesses.... `[T]he constitutional right of the accused to call witnesses is not without limit.' Commonwealth v. Blaikie, 375 Mass. 601, 608-610 (1978). Nor is the defendant's right to present witness testimony in his own behalf absolute.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage“` Smith involved a totally bizarre situation.' ... The office of the Attorney General of the Virgin Islands, which had exclusive jurisdiction to prosecute the witness, agreed to grant use immunity for the witness, but, as a matter of `prosecutorial courtesy,' conditioned its approval upon the consent of the United States Attorney, who inexplicably refused to consent.... To the extent that the court's decision was based on broader constitutional grounds we find its reasoning unpersuasive and generally agree with the reasoning put forth by the other Federal circuits in rejecting such claims for defense witness immunity”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“in some unique circumstances ... due process may require the granting by a judge of a limited form of immunity,”
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.