Commonwealth v. Harvell’s Empirical Analysis
1974
Citation profile
94 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 94 later decisions — most recently August 2010 · most notably Commonwealth v. Hubbard (1977), Commonwealth v. Colson (1985)
94 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. Jones · Commonwealth v. Lipscomb · Commonwealth v. Revty · Commonwealth v. McNeal · Commonwealth v. Fairbanks
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 94 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“"The prosecutor should not use arguments calculated to inflame the passions or prejudices of the jury."”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage“[s]o that the jury can dispassionately and objectively evaluate the testimony in a sober and reflective frame of mind that will produce judgment warranted by the evidence and not inspired by emotion or passion.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage“". . . I say, who thinks of the decedent, the victim? Whoever thinks of him? Who? I believe that if Mr. Holley were able to come back here and sit in this chair and talk with you, I believe he would say, `I didn't want to die. I didn't want to die. I don't know why Harvell chose to play God and say at what moment of time I should die. I still had some life ahead of me. I was breathing this good air. I wasn't on welfare taking advantage of people. I was working for Mr. Robinson for the meager amount of money that I needed to live on. I didn't want to die.' And if you, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, allow this defendant, based upon this evidence, to leave City Hall and walk the streets again, how many more Thomas Holleys will have to say `I didn't want to die'? And the only way you cannot find this defendant guilty of murder of the first degree is for Thomas Holley to come walking through that door, but we won't. Thomas Holley is dead because of this defendant."”
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.