Ashton v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis
1966
Citation profile
2 federal appellate · 6 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 9 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2013
2 federal appellate · 6 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 New York Times Co. v. Sullivan · Cantwell v. State of Connecticut · Garrison v. State of Louisiana · Cox v. State of Louisiana · Patton v. United States
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 9 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““We think the time has come to abandon the romantic aspects of the ancient mode of trial by jury and consider the matter pragmatically. No one questions the right of a defendant in a criminal case to invoke the protection of any or all of his constitutional rights. On the other hand, we can find no sound reason to deny him the right of waiving procedural requirements which exist principally for his benefit. We have recognized that he can waive a jury completely by pleading guilty. He can waive the right to counsel, the right to freedom from self-incrimination, the right to have excluded evidence obtained by unreasonable search or seizure, and at least in misdemeanor cases, the right to a 12-man jury. On what logical basis is unanimity a more sacred right ? “It is true this Court has- heretofore adhered to the theory that in a felony case the defendant cannot waive a 12-man jury. Branham v. Commonwealth, 209 Ky. 734 , 274 S.W. 489 ; Tackett v. Commonwealth, Ky., 320 S.W.2d 299 . A serious question may be raised as to whether a valid distinction can be made between the waiver of defendant’s rights in felony cases on the one hand and misdemeanors on the other. See Patton v. United States, 281 U.S. 276 , 50 S.Ct. 253 , 74 L.Ed. 854 ; Waiver of Trial Jury in Felony Cases in Kentucky, 48 Ky.L.Journal 457. We do not have that question here and will not re-examine it. “It is our conviction that at least in misdemeanor cases the defendant may waive not only a 12-man jury but unanimity”
2 later decisions 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.