Commonwealth v. McCloud’s Empirical Analysis
1974
Citation profile
3 federal appellate · 2 district · 67 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 72 later decisions — most recently May 2016 · most notably United States v. Oates (1977), Commonwealth v. Ali (2010)
3 federal appellate · 2 district · 67 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 Bruton v. United States · Pointer v. Texas · California v. Green · Dutton v. Evans · Douglas v. Alabama
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 72 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“in a homicide prosecution, evidentiary use, as a business records exception to the hearsay rule, of an autopsy report in proving legal causation is impermissible unless the accused is afforded the opportunity to confront and cross-examine the medical examiner who performed the autopsy, absent a compelling necessity.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage“‘(a)n opinion expressed in hospital records (were they to be admitted without the presence of the physician) is subject to no such searching inquiry as to accuracy, soundness, and veracity. Hence the danger in admitting them is very great. However admirable, whatever the character and reputation of the institution from which records come, to deny a defendant the opportunity to test the correctness of the diagnosis and ascertain the qualifications of the assertor ... is to deny (him) a substantial right.’”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“Although a fundamental right, [the] right of confrontation is not absolute. In certain circumstances, the admission of hearsay evidence does not violate the constitutional guarantee; in others, its introduction is constitutionally repugnant. . . . In delineating the line between admissible and inadmissible hearsay in a criminal case, it is . . . necessary to assess the purpose of the proferred evidence and the risks inherent in its admission.”
2 later decisions 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.