Commonwealth v. McLaughlin’s Empirical Analysis
1976
Citation profile
50 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 50 later decisions — most recently December 2016 · most notably Commonwealth v. Shaffer (1982), 248 Pa. Super. 431 - Commonwealth v. Boofer (1977)
50 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 Dukes v. Warden, Connecticut State Prison · Commonwealth v. Forbes · Commonwealth v. Starr · United States v. Stayton · Commonwealth v. Santos
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 50 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The Commonwealth contends that ‘substantial prejudice’ would occur if the Court were to allow appellant’s guilty pleas to be withdrawn. We do not agree. In the instant case, the Commonwealth presented two eyewitnesses who testified at the degree-of-guilt hearing. A review of their testimony reveals substantially similar versions of the facts surrounding the shooting. The Commonwealth contends that the presentation of the witness precludes the withdrawal of the plea because appellant would be able to use the testimony at a subsequent trial to contradict the witnesses, and the possibility might arise that the witnesses would not appear at the trial. We believe that the Commonwealth’s reasoning is speculation rather than ‘substantial prejudice’. There is no indication that any of the witnesses would change their stories at a subsequent trial or not appear at trial. (Emphasis added).”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“the crucial factor in determining whether to allow a presentence withdrawal of a guilty plea. In the instant case, we are of the opinion that the trial court erred in not allowing a presentence withdrawal of appellant’s guilty plea.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority““If the trial court finds ‘any fair and just reason’, withdrawal of the plea before sentence should be freely permitted, unless the prosecution has been ‘substantially prejudiced.’ ””
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.