Commonwealth v. Smith

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania

Decided January 20, 1967

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania · decided 1967-01-20

Relies on Escobedo v. Illinois · Commonwealth v. Jefferson

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1967-01-20

How this case has been cited

Cited by 14 later decisions — most recently May 1988

12 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.

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¶1Dissenting Opinion by

Mr. Justice Eagen :

¶2Since the trial in this case took place subsequent to June 22,1964, evidence of any incriminating statements made by the defendant during in-custody police questioning was inadmissible, unless he was clearly warned of his right to remain silent before any questioning began. See, Escobedo v. Illinois, 378 U.S. 478 (1964), and Com. v. Jefferson, 423 Pa. 541, 226 A. 2d 765 (1967). As I read the record such a warning was not given.

¶3I would therefore reverse the judgment and order a new trial.

¶4I dissent.

Mr. Justice Jones and Mr. Justice Roberts join in this dissenting opinion.