Commonwealth v. Edwards’s Empirical Analysis
1989
Citation profile
2 federal appellate · 140 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 144 later decisions — most recently August 2014 · most notably Commonwealth v. Hughes (2004), Commonwealth v. Williams (1994)
2 federal appellate · 140 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 Miranda v. State of Arizona Vignera · Gregg v. Georgia · Witherspoon v. Illinois · Furman v. Georgia · Wainwright v. Witt
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 144 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“In the sentencing hearing, evidence may be presented as to any matter that the court deems relevant and admissible on the question of the sentence to be imposed and shall include matters relating to any of the aggravating or mitigating circumstances specified in subsections (d) and (e). Evidence of aggravating circumstances shall be limited to those circumstances specified in subsection (d).”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“[W]e view the evidence in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth and, drawing all reasónable inferences therefrom favorable to the Commonwealth, determine if there is sufficient evidence to enable the trier of fact to find every element of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“the statements of the accused were voluntary and the waiver of his constitutional rights was knowing and intelligent.”
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.