Commonwealth v. Morris’s Empirical Analysis
1986
Citation profile
52 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 52 later decisions — most recently December 2009 · most notably Commonwealth v. Tilley (1991), Commonwealth v. Jones (1996)
52 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 Bruton v. United States · Commonwealth v. Clair · Lascaris v. Shirley · Commonwealth v. Allen · Commonwealth v. Peterson
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 52 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“As a general rule, evidence of crimes unrelated to the charge for which the defendant is being tried, is inadmissible ... There is no per se rule that requires a new trial for a defendant every time there is a reference to prior criminal activity ... ‘[W]e have never ascribed to the view that all improper references to prior criminal activities necessarily require the award of a new trial as the only effective remedy.’ ... Further, the reference to prior criminal activity must be prejudicial to the defendant, with prejudice resulting ‘where the testimony conveys to the jury, either expressly or by reasonable implication, the fact of a prior criminal offense.’ However, it is possible to eradicate any possible prejudice resulting from reference to prior criminal activity by the defendant____ An immediate curative instruction to the jury may alleviate any harm to the defendant that results from reference to prior criminal conduct.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[W]e have never ascribed to the view that all improper references to prior criminal activities necessarily require the award of a new trial as the only effective remedy.”
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.