Commonwealth v. Mitchell’s Empirical Analysis
1977
Citation profile
4 federal appellate · 233 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 237 later decisions — most recently February 2012 · most notably Commonwealth v. Ehredt (1979), Commonwealth v. Maxwell (1984)
4 federal appellate · 233 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. Shelton · Commonwealth v. Hamilton · Commonwealth v. Johnson · Commonwealth v. O'Shea · Commonwealth v. Woods
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 237 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“It is not the function of our courts to second-guess the methods used by police to locate accused persons. The analysis to be employed is whether, considering the information available to the police, they have acted with diligence in attempting to locate the accused. Deference must be afforded the police officer’s judgment as to which avenues of approach will be fruitful.”
10 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““For purposes of subparagraph (d)(1) . . . the defendant should be deemed unavailable for any period of time during which he could not be apprehended because his whereabouts were unknown and could not be determined by due diligence; or during which he contested extradition, or a responding jurisdiction delayed or refused to grant extradition . . . ””
6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[Rule 1100. Prompt Trial] (a)(1) Trial in a court case in which a written complaint is filed against the defendant after June 30, 1973 but before July 1, 1974 shall commence no later than two hundred seventy (270) days from the date on which the complaint is filed. (2) Trial in a court case in which a written complaint is filed against the defendant after June 30, 1974 shall commence no later than one hundred (180) days from the date on which the complaint is filed.”
5 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.