Commonwealth v. Nikas’s Empirical Analysis
2000
Citation profile
2 federal appellate · 12 state decisions
Relationships
Relies on Boykin v. Alabama · North Carolina v. Alford · Henderson v. Morgan · Washington v. Washington State Commercial Passenger Fishing Vessel Ass'n · Commonwealth v. McGuirk
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.
“(Mt does not matter whether a defendant acquires an understanding of the elements of the relevant crime or crimes from the judge, from his attorney, or in some other way. All that is necessary is that the record show that, by some means, the defendant possessed enough comprehension to plead freely and understandingly.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. State v. Alexander“the record reveals that neither [the defendant], nor his counsel, nor the court correctly understood the essential elements of the crime with which he was charged.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. State v. Alexander
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.