Commonwealth v. Ahearn’s Empirical Analysis
1966
Citation profile
7 federal appellate · 26 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 34 later decisions — most recently October 1992 · most notably Commonwealth v. Kichline (1976), Commonwealth v. Walzack (1976)
7 federal appellate · 26 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 60 Cal. 2d 482 - People v. Henderson · People v. Wells · People v. Gorshen · Commonwealth v. Kravitz · Commonwealth v. Novak
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 34 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[I]f states of mind such as deliberation or premeditation are accorded legal significance, psychiatric evidence should be admissible when relevant to prove or disprove their existence to the same extent as any other relevant evidence.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent“Evidence that the defendant suffered from a mental disease or defect is admissible whenever it is relevant to prove that the defendant did or did not have a state of mind which is an element of the offense.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent“A plea of guilty to an indictment for murder constitutes an admission or confession of guilt of the crime of murder, with the degree of murder to be determined, and the penalty fixed, by the court. * * *”
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.