Commonwealth v. Clayton’s Empirical Analysis
1987
Citation profile
50 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 50 later decisions — most recently February 2026 · most notably Commonwealth v. LaCava (1995), Commonwealth v. Simmons (1995)
50 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 Lockett v. Ohio · Eddings v. Oklahoma · United States v. Lovasco · Local 408, International Brotherhood of Teamsters v. National Labor Relations Board · Skipper v. South Carolina
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 50 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““evidence of other crimes is admissible when it tends to prove (1) motive; (2) intent; (3) absence of mistake or accident; (4) a common scheme, plan or design embracing commission of two or more crimes so related to each other that proof of one tends to prove the others; or (5) to establish the identity of the person charged with the commission of the crime on trial — in other words, where there is such a logical connection between the crimes that proof of one will naturally tend to show that the accused is the person who committed the other. [Citation omitted.] When the evidence is relevant and important to one of these five issues, it is generally conceded that the prejudicial effect may be outweighed by the probative value. [Footnote omitted.] [Emphasis added.]”, quoting Commonwealth v. Peterson, 453 Pa. 187, 197-8 , 307 A.2d 264, 269 (1973). Id. at 399-400, 396 A.2d at 1230 .”
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.