Commonwealth v. Mitchell’s Empirical Analysis
2003
Citation profile
2 district · 15 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 22 later decisions (2 by the Supreme Court) — most recently January 2025
2 district · 15 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 Strickland v. Washington · Nix v. Whiteside · Commonwealth v. Saferian · United States Department of Commerce v. Montana · United States ex rel. Wilcox v. Johnson
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 22 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““Once the matter is called to the [trial] court’s attention, the judge should instruct the lawyer on how to proceed. (In evaluating the situation, the judge will have to rely on the representations of counsel, which of necessity will be cryptic, because counsel is the one who must make the disclosure while maintaining client confidences and allowing for continued zealous advocacy at trial). Before giving' instruction, the judge is not required to hold an evidentiary hearing, to appoint an independent lawyer for the defendant, or to conduct a colloquy, although the latter may be appropriate if it appears that the defendant does not clearly understand the situation he has created.” Mitchell, 438 Mass, at 552, 781 N.E.2d at 1251 .”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“act in good faith based on objective circumstances firmly rooted in fact.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“The narrative form of testimony was properly directed. This approach was adopted by the ABA in 1971. See ABA Standards for Criminal Justice 4-7.7 (Approved Draft 1971). Although the ABA later rejected this approach and currently suggests that the lawyer may examine as to truthful testimony, and although the approach has been criticized, see United States v. Long, 857 F.2d 436 , 446 n. 7 (8th Cir.1988), “the narrative [approach] continues to be a commonly accepted method of dealing with client perjury.” Shockley v. State, 565 A.2d 1373, 1380 (Del.1989). See Butler v. United States, 414 A.2d 844, 850 (D.C.1980); Sanborn v. State 474 So.2d 309 , 313 & n. 3 (Fla.Dist.Ct.App.1985); People v. Bartee, 208 Ill.App.3d 105, 108 , 153 Ill.Dec. 5 , 566 N.E.2d 855 (1991). The defendant suggests that his trial counsel should have conducted a direct examination with respect to the “non-suspect” portions of his testimony and should also have argued the truthful portions of the defendant’s testimony in his closing argument. The former suggestion has been justifiably criticized by the Criminal Justice Section of the ABA: “[T]his is the worst approach of all.... This [approach] would be far worse for the client than saying nothing, not to mention it would be virtually impossible to control once the client takes the stand. And what about cross? How can you possibly prepare your clients for that? Tell them not to answer any questions that they do not like?” ABA Criminal Justice Section, Ethical P”
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.