Commonwealth v. Wharton’s Empirical Analysis
1981
Citation profile
20 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 20 later decisions — most recently April 2013
20 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 Berger v. United States · Duncan v. State of Louisiana · Adams v. United States Ex Rel. McCann · In the Matters of Lee Roy Murchison and John Whites · McKeiver v. Pennsylvania
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 20 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“What were contrived as protections for the accused should not be turned into fetters. To deny an accused a choice of procedure ... is to impair the worth of great Constitutional safeguards by treating them as empty verbalisms. Underlying such dogmatism is distrust of the ability of courts to accommodate judgment to the varying circumstances of individual cases. But this is to express want of faith in the very tribunals which are charged with enforcement of the Constitution ... Adams v. United States ex rel McCann, 317 U.S. 269, 279 [ 63 S.Ct. 236, 242 , 87 L.Ed. 268 ] (1942). Quoted with approval in Commonwealth v. Wharton, 495 Pa. 581 , 435 A. 2d 158, 167 (1981).”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence““[t]he Supreme Court shall have the power to prescribe general rules governing practice, procedure and the conduct of all courts, . .. including the power to provide for ... the administration of all courts and supervision of all officers of the judicial branch, if such rules are consistent with this Constitution and neither abridge, enlarge nor modify the substantive rights of any litigant, nor affect the right of the General Assembly to determine the jurisdiction of any court or justice of the peace, nor suspend nor alter any statute of limitation or repose.””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““Waiver of Jury Trial. In all cases, the defendant may waive a jury trial with the consent of his attorney, if any, and approval by a judge of the court in which the case is pending, and elect to be tried by a judge without a jury. The judge shall ascertain from the defendant whether this is a knowing and intelligent waiver, and such colloquy shall appear on the record....””
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.