Commonwealth v. Pierce’s Empirical Analysis
1973
Citation profile
55 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 55 later decisions — most recently October 2017 · most notably Commonwealth v. Hubbard (1977), Commonwealth v. Evans (1980)
55 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 Commonwealth v. Simon · Commonwealth v. Bonomo · Commonwealth v. Gockley · Commonwealth v. Potter · Bialek v. Pittsburgh Brewing Co.
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 55 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[We] cannot accept the statement of jurors as to what transpired in the jury room as to the propriety or impropriety of a juror's conduct. To do so, would destroy the security of all verdicts and go far toward weakening the efficacy of trial by jury, so well grounded in our system of jurisprudence. Jurors cannot impeach their own verdict. Their deliberations are secret and their inviolability must be closely guarded. Only in clear cases [of] improper conduct by jurors, evidenced by competent testimony, should a verdict, which is fully supported by the evidence, be set aside and a new trial granted.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage“this Court agrees, that the notes taken by Juror No. 3 constitute what may be deemed extraneous influence from one view point. The eleven pages of notes were not verbatim recitations of witness testimony or this Court's instructions [.] Yet, it is apparent, the subjective contents of the notes were summaries by Juror No. 3 of what he recalled over the course of the trial. These notes contain, inter alia, identification of the attorneys and their clients, physical descriptions of witnesses, summaries of testimony, and cursory credibility assessments by Juror No. 3 of some of the witnesses. Objectively scrutinized, the notes do not contain matters which were beyond that which was presented during the trial. Thus, this Court's decision to deny the Defendants' Motion on this issue rests upon a finding that the Defendants have failed to meet their burden of establishing that the notes caused a reasonable likelihood of prejudice. Because jurors are not competent to testify as to what transpired during deliberations, this Court may not go any further than the face of the notes to determine whether a reasonable likelihood of prejudice was created by the notes that would require this Court to order a new trial. Taking all information in the notes at face value this Court finds that the Defendants have failed to prove that a reasonable likelihood of prejudice was created by the notes. Because the notes were taken daily, this Court does find that they go to a central issue in the case. ”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“it is improper for a juror to take notes and use such notes in the jury room, and if the defendant can establish prejudice from such conduct he is entitled to a new trial.”
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.