Commonwealth v. Bonomo’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

9 federal appellate · 169 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 184 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The Commonwealth has the burden of proving every essential element necessary for conviction. If the defendant traverses one of those essential elements by evidence of alibi, his evidence will be considered by the jury along with all the other evidence. It may, either standing alone or together with other evidence, be sufficient to leave in the minds of the jury a reasonable doubt which, without it, might not otherwise exist. It will be the duty of the trial judge to carefully instruct the jury as to the relationship of the evidence of the prosecution and the evidence of the defendant as each bears upon the essential elements of the crime charged. This must be done without unfair disparagement although the trial judge must be left free to comment upon the evidence, as he has done heretofore, so long as he leaves the jury free to find its own true verdict.”

   10 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Willis · Commonwealth v. Pounds

2. ““It is the law that in a criminal case, unlike a civil case, no binding instruction may be given in favor of the prosecution. This is true whether the evidence upon which the prosecution rests is oral or documentary and is equally true no matter how strong the proof proffered by the prosecution may be. It is because of this never-shifting burden upon the Commonwealth to prove every essential element of the charge it makes against the defendant that it cannot logically be said that the Commonwealth has the burden to prove the presence of such element while the defendant, at the same time, has the burden of proving its absence. Hence, whenever the prosecution relies upon proof that the defendant is present at the commission of the crime, it cannot be said with any show of reason that the defendant, who asserts he was absent, has any burden of proving it.””

   5 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Rose · 252 Pa. Super. 54 - Commonwealth v. Walton

3. “The defendant has also submitted what we generally call in the law alibi testimony. An alibi is merely a name of the nature of the defense that the accused person was not at the place that the crime was committed, but was elsewhere when that crime was committed. Obviously a person cannot be found guilty of a crime charged unless he was present at the scene of the crime. The defendant has offered evidence that he was not present at the scene of the crime, but rather that he was at Gino’s at work. When you come to consider this evidence or this defense, you must consider, among other things, whether the testimony given by the alibi witnesses covered the entire time the offense is shown to have been committed, and whether it precludes the possibility of the defendant’s presence at the scene of the crime. You should consider this evidence along with other evidence in the case in determining whether the Commonwealth has met its burden of proving the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The defendant’s alibi evidence that he was not present at the scene of the crime may in and of itself work an acquittal, or it, together with other evidence, may be sufficient to raise a reasonable doubt in the mind of the jury. When you come to consider the alibi testimony, you will not only consider it, the single testimony of each witness given, but you must also consider it in the context of the other evidence in this case and in context with the evidence given by the eyewitness or the vi”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Cain