Commonwealth v. Roundtree’s Empirical Analysis
1970
Citation profile
106 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 108 later decisions — most recently October 2003 · most notably Commonwealth v. Campana (1974), Commonwealth v. Zapata (1972)
106 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 Parker v. North Carolina · Commonwealth Ex Rel. West v. Rundle · Commonwealth v. Johnston · United States of America Ex Rel. Albert B. Crosby v. Joseph R. Brierley, Superintendent, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania · United States of America Ex Rel. Charles Grays v. Alfred T. Rundle, Supt
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 108 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“"[I]f a defendant pleads guilty to a criminal charge, and in the next breath contravenes the plea by asserting facts which, if true, would establish that he is not guilty, then his guilty plea is of no effect and should be rejected." Commonwealth v. Roundtree, 440 Pa. 199, 202 , 269 A.2d 709, 711 (1970).”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage“(1) The slayer must have been free from fault in provoking or continuing the difficulty which resulted in the killing . . . (2) The slayer must have reasonably believed that he was in imminent danger of death, great bodily harm, or some felony, and that there was a necessity to kill in order to save himself therefrom . . . (3) The slayer must not have violated any duty to retreat or avoid the danger. . . .”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“It is well established that a guilty plea is not knowing and intelligent where the defendant does not appreciate the nature and consequences of that plea.. . . If the defendant does not understand that his guilty plea waives all possibility of acquittal, then the plea is void and cannot be accepted. . . . It is for this reason that we have said: `[A] defendant should not be allowed to plead”
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.