Commonwealth v. Rolan’s Empirical Analysis
1988
Citation profile
2 federal appellate · 54 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 60 later decisions — most recently February 2017 · most notably Commonwealth v. Hall (1997), Commonwealth v. Baker (1992)
2 federal appellate · 54 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 Lockhart v. McCree · Local 408, International Brotherhood of Teamsters v. National Labor Relations Board · Commonwealth v. Pierce · Commonwealth v. Zettlemoyer · Commonwealth v. Sneed
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 60 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.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“"[a] criminal homicide ... committed by an intentional,” i.e., “willful, deliberate and premeditated killing.” 18 Pa.C.S. § 2502(a), (d).”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“statement was a simple declamation that all evidence lead unerringly to the conclusion that Appellant had committed the murder.” Id. We further held that”
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.