Commonwealth v. Baker’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

58 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 62 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[c]omments by a prosecutor do not constitute reversible error unless the unavoidable effect of such comments would be to prejudice the jury, firming in their minds fixed bias and hostility towards the defendant so that they could not weigh the evidence objectively and render a true verdict.”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 358 Pa. Super. 609 - Commonwealth v. West · 403 Pa. Super. 342 - Commonwealth v. Purcell

2. “[I]n Nelson v. O’Neil, 402 U.S. 622 , 91 S.Ct. 1723 , 29 L.Ed.2d 222 (1971), the United States Supreme Court held that where a co-defendant in a state court trial took the stand at a joint trial in his own defense, and denied making an alleged out-of-court statement impheating defendant, and proceeded to testify favorably to defendant concerning the underlying facts, the defendant was denied no rights under the Sixth or Fourteenth Amendments, despite the contention that effective confrontation was possible only if co-defendant had affirmed the statement. Indeed, it was determined that the co-defendant’s testimony at trial was more favorable to defendant than any that cross-examination by counsel could possibly have produced. 402 U.S. at 629 , 91 S.Ct. at 1727 , 29 L.Ed.2d at 228 . Bruton [v. United States, 391 U.S. 123 , 88 S.Ct. 1620 , 20 L.Ed.2d 476 (1968)], was found inapplicable.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 435 Pa. Super. 266 - Commonwealth v. Wheeler · 1999 Pa. Super. 272 - Commonwealth v. Brady

3. “Let me give you an example when I say capital punishment and the rights of the individual. The last person that was executed in this state was Elmo Smith and his crime was in 1959; Mary Anne Mitchell in 1959, in Manyunk. Remember it? Well, it was in the newspapers. He was the last person that was executed in 1963. You get an appeal after appeal after appeal, if you think the Supreme Court is going to let anybody get executed until they're absolutely sure that man has a fair trial make no mistake about that. I’m not going to go any further. I just want you to understand that once you leave, this man is not going to have the switch pulled in a matter of hours. That just doesn’t happen. It goes on and on and on. I’m not going to sit here and tell you what the system is all about.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Beasley · Commonwealth v. Abu-Jamal