Commonwealth v. Cooley’s Empirical Analysis
1975
Citation profile
2 federal appellate · 76 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 78 later decisions — most recently April 2010 · most notably Commonwealth v. Chester (1991), Commonwealth v. Albrecht (1998)
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 Commonwealth v. Clair · Commonwealth v. Harris · Commonwealth v. Banks · Allen v. Mack · Commonwealth v. Cheeks
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 78 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 had 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.”
7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““in some instances the time lapse may be so long or the question and answer exchange so unhurried and reflective as to require a finding of non-spontaneity.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““[Appellant] urges that the trial court should have instructed the jury to assess for themselves whether the decedent believed he was about to die as he made the accusatory statement. That determination, however, is solely for the court, to be made incident to a decision on the statement’s admissibility. . . . Factual questions which are preliminary to a legal determination of admissibility of evidence, including hearsay exceptions such as dying declarations, are simply not within the province of the jury. . . . [T]he customary general charge on credibility of the witnesses and the weight to be accorded their testimony is all that is required.””
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.