Commonwealth v. Graves’s Empirical Analysis
1975
Citation profile
4 federal appellate · 139 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 143 later decisions — most recently December 2008 · most notably Commonwealth v. Kichline (1976), Commonwealth v. O'SEARO (1976)
4 federal appellate · 139 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. Rose · Commonwealth v. Bonomo · Commonwealth v. Simmons · Commonwealth v. Walters · Commonwealth v. Samuel Jones
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 143 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Intoxication or drugged condition are not, as such, defenses to a criminal charge; but in any prosecution for any offense, evidence of intoxication or drugged condition of the defendant may be offered by the defendant whenever it is relevant to negative an element of the offense.”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“"Each of these cases, faced with the issue, recognized that intoxication was not a basis for excuse or mitigation but was germane to the issue of the existence of premeditation and deliberation. While it is true that they concluded that the evidence was not to be used to reduce the crime to voluntary manslaughter, and concededly in some instances mention a distinction between a lesser degree and another grade of crime, a careful reading of these cases indicates that the crucial consideration for their conclusion was that the fact of intoxication was irrelevant to the question of the absence or presence of legal provocation and passion."”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““It would clearly be an anomaly to suggest that although the Commonwealth must establish the existence of a mental state beyond a reasonable doubt, and that failure to sustain the burden requires an acquittal; yet preclude the defendant from producing relevant evidence to contest the issue.” (footnote omitted).”
2 later decisions 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.