402 Pa. Super. 257 - Commonwealth v. Smith’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

14 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 14 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “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
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Preston

2. “[U]nlike Rakes , the Commonwealth’s case here was not fully established through S.L.’s testimony at trial. A comparison of the officers’ testimony with S.L.’s testimony shows that the officers’ testimony was crucial to the Commonwealth’s case, as the testimony of these witnesses supplied many missing details regarding the time, place and frequency of the events and elements of the offenses which S.L. failed to provide at trial.”

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

3. “The gist of [a] hearsay objection is repetition on the witness stand on [sic] an out of court assertion. It is not dependent on the identity of the witness or the fact that the declarant may be available. Thus even if a witness testifies to an assertion previously made by him and the assertion is offered to prove the truth of the matter asserted therein, then it is hearsay. See McCormick [on Evidence § 251 (3d ed. 1984)].”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 420 Pa. Super. 233 - Commonwealth v. Polston