Commonwealth v. Carson’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

24 state decisions

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 24 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “It must be recognized that Williams did not establish a prophylactic rule requiring a new trial for failure of the record to indicate the defendant’s knowledge of each and every element of the jury trial right which he was waiving. The focus in Williams was, and it remains, whether the waiver was knowing and intelligent, not whether certain talismanic questions were asked and answered.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Anthony · 327 Pa. Super. 139 - Commonwealth v. Payne

2. “Nowhere on the record is there any indication that [the defendant] knew the essential ingredients of a jury trial which are necessary to understand the significance of the right he was waiving. These essential ingredients, basic to the concept of a jury trial, are the requirements that the jury be chosen from members of the community (a jury of one’s peers), that the verdict be unanimous, and that the accused be allowed to participate in the selection of the jury panel. . . . In view of the failure of the record to establish that appellant had sufficient knowledge of the right which it is now contended he waived, we are unable to find that the waiver was either knowing and intelligent.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 327 Pa. Super. 139 - Commonwealth v. Payne