Commonwealth v. Meredith’s Empirical Analysis
1980
Citation profile
2 federal appellate · 74 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 76 later decisions — most recently December 2015 · most notably Commonwealth v. Pursell (1985), Commonwealth v. Simmons (1995)
2 federal appellate · 74 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 Gregg v. Georgia · Woodson v. North Carolina · Jurek v. Texas · Proffitt v. Florida · Roberts v. Louisiana
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 76 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[i]f a deadly force is knowingly applied by the actor to the person of another, the intent to take life is as evident as if the actor stated the intent to kill at the time the force was applied.”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“In a similar case, the supreme court stated: In this jurisdiction we have held that where an adult is given sole custody of a child of tender years for a period of time, and, during that time the child sustains injuries which may have been caused by a criminal agency, the finder of fact may examine any explanation offered and, if they find that explanation to be wanting, they may reject it and find the person having custody of the child responsible for the wounds. Commonwealth v. Pa-quette, 451 Pa. 250 , 301 A.2d 837 (1973).”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“A well-recognized and generally accepted inference to establish state'of mind is that an actor intends the natural and probable consequences of his acts. An offshoot of this principle is that a specific intent to kill may be inferred from the use of a deadly force upon a vital part of the human body.”
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.