Commonwealth v. Devlin’s Empirical Analysis
1975
Citation profile
2 federal appellate · 76 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 79 later decisions — most recently September 2024 · most notably 282 Pa. Super. 431 - Commonwealth v. Niemetz (1980), State v. Orsini (1982)
2 federal appellate · 76 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 Albert Twining v. State of New Jersey · Hoag v. State of New Jersey · Brock v. State of North Carolina · Gibbs v. Burke · United States ex rel. Drew v. Myers
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 79 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““[W]e cannot enunciate the exact degree of specificity in the proof of the date of a crime which will be required or the amount of latitude which will be acceptable. Certainly the Commonwealth need not always prove a single specific date of the crime. . . . Any leeway permissible would vary with the nature of the crime and the age and condition of the victim, balanced against the rights of the accused. 3”
7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“deprived of life, liberty, or property, unless by the judgment of bis peers or by the law of the land.” Pa. Const, art. I, § 9. The phrase “the law of the land” is synonymous with”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““It may be conceded that in the prosecution of crimes of the kind here involved the Commonwealth is not required to prove their commission on the date laid in the indictment, but, failing in that, we think it has the burden, in order to sustain a conviction, of proving their commission upon some other date, fixed with reasonable certainty in being within the prescribed statutory period.” See also Commonwealth v. Yon, 235 Pa.Super. 232 , 341 A.2d 169 (1975).”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
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.