Commonwealth v. Riley’s Empirical Analysis
1974
Citation profile
32 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 32 later decisions — most recently September 1994 · most notably Commonwealth v. Jermyn (1987), Commonwealth v. Shoatz (1976)
32 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. Agie · Commonwealth v. Kravitz · Rosche v. McCoy · Commonwealth v. Coleman · Commonwealth v. Rimmel
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 32 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“There is more to a child’s consciousness of the duty to speak the truth than being able to give a clear example of a lie or to understand the concept of an ‘oath.’ In fact, the trial judge’s opportunity to observe the demeanor, alertness, thoughtfulness, and sincerity of a child witness may be more informative than the answers the child gives to questions such as “What is a he?’ and ‘What will happen to you if you tell a lie?’”
1 later decision quote this exact passage““(1) such capacity to communicate, including as it does both an ability to understand questions and to frame express and intelligent answers; (2) mental capacity to observe the occurrence itself and the capacity of remembering what it is that [the witness] is called to testify about; and (3) a consciousness of the duty to speak the truth.””
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Commonwealth v. Hart
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.