Commonwealth v. Prosdocimo’s Empirical Analysis
1990
Citation profile
138 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 141 later decisions — most recently December 2025 · most notably Commonwealth v. Hall (1997), Commonwealth v. Wright (2008)
138 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 Commonwealth v. Ohle · Commonwealth v. Cain · 375 Pa. Super. 601 - Commonwealth v. Smalis
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 141 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“When evaluating jury instructions, the charge must be read as a whole to determine whether it was fair or prejudicial. The trial court has broad discretion in phrasing its instructions, and may choose its own wording so long as the law is clearly, adequately, and accurately presented to the jury for its consideration.”
9 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[T]he general rule is that a voluntary drug condition is not a defense to a criminal charge. Generally speaking, a person who voluntarily used drugs cannot become so drugged that he or she, for that reason, [is] legally incapable of committing a crime. The general rule is subject to a qualification when the crime charged is first degree murder. The defendant is permitted to claim as a defense that he was so drugged at the time of the killing that he did not possess the specific intent to kill required for first degree murder. Evidence of a drug condition as negating intent necessary for a conviction of murder in the first degree has been submitted for your consideration. You may believe any, all, or none of the testimony offered at this trial. To negate the intent necessary for conviction of murder in the first degree, a defendant must have been overwhelmed or overpowered by drugs to the point of losing his faculties, so as to be incapable of forming a specific intent. Now the Commonwealth has the burden of disproving this defense. That is to say you cannot find the defendant guilty of first degree murder unless you are satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant, despite any drug condition, was at the time capable of forming and did, in fact, form a specific intent to kill Eileen Jones; that is, a willful, deliberate, and premeditated design to kill her. Voluntary drug condition may reduce a crime of murder from first degree to third degree; however, voluntary dru”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“A jury instruction given by the trial court will be upheld so long as it `sufficiently and accurately apprises a lay jury of the law it must consider in rendering its decision.'”
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.