Commonwealth v. Marsh’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 federal appellate · 2 district · 109 state decisions

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 120 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““[A] conviction after a plea of guilty is based not on the evidence in the hands of the prosecution, which may include a pretrial confession, but rather upon the defendant’s own admission in open court that he committed the crime. The key question is whether the defendant had the opportunity to make a reasonable choice. The existence of an involuntary confession does not, in itself, demonstrate that the defendant did not make a reasonable choice, and thus it cannot establish, in itself, that the plea was not intelligently and knowingly entered.” 440 Pa. at 593 , 271 A.2d at 483 .”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 278 Pa. Super. 189 - Commonwealth v. Bromund · 398 Pa. Super. 449 - Commonwealth v. Vealey

2. “. . . was told that he had the right to an attorney and if he could not afford one, one would be obtained for him.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Ponton · United States v. Young

3. “In pleading guilty generally to a murder indictment, a defendant does not thereby waive his right to object to the admission of improper evidence which will bear on the degree of guilt and the punishment to be imposed. (citations omitted) Since a general plea to murder is sufficient, in itself, to sustain only a conviction of murder in the second degree and the adjudication of guilt in this case was of a higher degree, the question of the admissibility of the evidence at issue must be resolved.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Ash