Commonwealth v. Coleman’s Empirical Analysis
1974
Citation profile
87 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 89 later decisions — most recently January 2008 · most notably Commonwealth v. Farquharson (1976), 83 Ill. 2d 411 - People v. Leonard (1980)
87 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 Allen v. Mack · Commonwealth v. Noble · Commonwealth v. Edwards · Commonwealth v. Stokes
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 89 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““. . .a spontaneous declaration by a person whose mind has been suddenly made subject to an overpowering emotion caused by some unexpected and shocking occurrence, which that person has just participated in or closely witnessed, and made in reference to some phase of that occurrence which he perceived, and this declaration must be made so near the occurrence both in time and place as to exclude the likelihood of its having emanated in whole or in part from his reflective faculties.” Commonwealth v. Coleman, 458 Pa. 112, 115-16 , 326 A.2d 387, 388-89 (1974) quoting Allen v. Mack, 345 Pa. 407, 410 , 28 A.2d 783, 784 (1942).”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage““The conclusion is irresistible that this declaration was the victim’s spontaneous reaction to the attack upon [him] only minutes before. There was no evidence that the statement was premeditated or in any way the product of design on the declarant’s part.” Commonwealth v. Coleman, supra, 458 Pa. at 123, 326 A.2d at 392 . (Concurring opinion of Pomeroy, J., joined by Mr. Justice Roberts and Mr. Justice Nix.)”
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.