Commonwealth v. Norman’s Empirical Analysis
1971
Citation profile
3 federal appellate · 51 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 54 later decisions — most recently March 2017 · most notably Erie Telecommunications, Inc. v. City of Erie (1988), Commonwealth v. Fiero (1975)
3 federal appellate · 51 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 Glasser v. United States · Johnson v. Zerbst · Douglas v. People of State of California · Carnley v. Cochran · Brookhart v. Janis
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 54 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“In determining whether a defendant has waived a constitutional right it is well settled that the federal standards of waiver first enunciated in Johnson v. Zerbst, 304 U.S. 458 , 58 S.Ct. 1019 , 82 L.Ed. 1461 (1938) apply. Brookhart v. Janis, 384 U.S. 1 , 86 S.Ct. 1245 , 16 L.Ed.2d 314 (1966). The waiver of a constitutional right must be “an intentional relinquishment or abandonment of a known right or privilege.” 304 U.S. at 464 , 58 S.Ct. at 1023 . The presumption must always be against the waiver of a constitutional right. Glasser v. United States, 315 U.S. 60, 70-71 , 62 S.Ct. 457, 463-465 , 86 L.Ed. 680 (1942). Nor can waiver be presumed in a silent record case. The United States Supreme Court explicitly ruled in Carnley v. Cochran, 369 U.S. 506 , 82 S.Ct. 884 , 8 L.Ed.2d 70 (1962): “Presuming waiver from a silent record is impermissible. The record must show, or there must be an allegation and evidence which show, that an accused was offered counsel but intelligently and understandingly rejected the offer. Anything less is not waiver.” (Emphasis added). Id. at 516 , 82 S.Ct. at 890 . Thus this Court is constitutionally bound to place the burden of proving waiver on the Commonwealth. Whether defendant was represented by private or court-appointed counsel, or whether his trial took place before or after the Douglas decision, are distinctions with no legal significance. Commonwealth v. Ezell, [ 431 Pa. 101 , 244 A.2d 646 (1968)]; Commonwealth ex rel Stevens v. Myers, [ 419”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“intentional relinquishment or abandonment of a known right or privilege.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
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.