Commonwealth v. Frey’s Empirical Analysis
1984
Citation profile
4 federal appellate · 319 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 341 later decisions (2 by the Supreme Court) — most recently November 2016 · most notably Commonwealth v. Sneed (1987), Frey v. Francis (1984)
4 federal appellate · 319 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 · Furman v. Georgia · Lockett v. Ohio · Woodson v. North Carolina · Zant v. Stephens
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 341 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“(i) the sentence of death was the product of passion, prejudice or any other arbitrary factor; (ii) the evidence fails to support the finding of at least one aggravating circumstance specified in subsection (d); or (iii) the sentence of death is excessive or disproportionate to the penalty imposed in similar cases, considering both the circumstances of the crime and the character and record of the defendant.”
36 later decisions quote this exact passage“There is little or no vitality left to this practice which stems from this Court's decisions in Commonwealth v. Jones and Commonwealth v. Manning 477 Pa. 495, 384 A.2d 1197 (1978). The continuing validity of the rule was seriously undermined by our decisions holding that an instruction on involuntary manslaughter may be given only where the evidence would support such a verdict. The death knell to the practice regarding instructions on voluntary manslaughter was sounded in Commonwealth v. Carter wherein a majority of this Court held that a trial court may charge on the ‘unreasonable belief' subclass of voluntary manslaughter only where evidence exists that would support such a verdict. The majority did not decide the propriety of the practice of charging the jury on ‘heat of passion’ voluntary manslaughter in the absence of evidence, although the concurring opinions of this author and Mr. Justice McDermott would have abolished that practice as well.”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“(6) The defendant committed a killing while in the perpetration of a felony; and, (9) The defendant has a significant history of felony convictions involving the use or threat of violence to the person. The jury found the mitigating circumstances according to 42 Pa.C.S. § 9711(e) to be: (2) The defendant was under the influence of extreme mental or emotional disturbance; (3) The capacity of the defendant to appreciate the criminality of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of law was substantially impaired; and (8) Any other evidence of mitigation ..., i.e., "Dr. Levitt’s testimony concerning the character and record of the defendant and the circumstances of his offense.” Verdict Sheet at pg. 3.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage
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.