Commonwealth v. Saunders’s Empirical Analysis
1992
Citation profile
55 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 55 later decisions — most recently March 2022 · most notably Commonwealth v. Hall (1997), Commonwealth v. Hawkins (1997)
55 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 McKnight v. Commonwealth · Commonwealth v. Bonomo · Commonwealth v. Ohle · Commonwealth v. Pounds · Commonwealth v. Yost
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 55 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“An [alibi] instruction is proper if it expressly informs the jury that the alibi evidence, either by itself or together with other evidence, could raise a reasonable doubt as to the defendant's guilt and clearly directs the jury to consider this evidence in determining whether the Commonwealth met its burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that the crime was committed by the defendant. A charge which meets this standard would not be taken to mean that by introducing alibi evidence the defense assumed a burden of proof, which, if not met, could provide a basis for a finding of guilt.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“It is established that appellate review of a trial court charge must involve a consideration of the charge as a whole to determine whether it was fair and complete. The review does not focus upon whether certain "magic words" were included in the charge. Rather, it is the effect of the charge as a whole that is controlling.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Obviously, a defendant cannot be guilty unless he was at the scene of the alleged crime. The defendant has offered Nanette Hart and Cheryl Jordan to show that he was at his father's house in Philadelphia and therefore was not present at the alleged time of death of Andrea Thomas. You should consider this evidence along with all of the other evidence in this case when determining whether the Commonwealth has met its burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime has been committed and that this defendant committed this crime. The defendant's evidence that he was not present at the time of death either by itself or with other evidence, if accepted by you as true, may be sufficient to raise a reasonable doubt of guilt in your mind. If you have such a reasonable doubt of the defendant's guilt, you must give the defendant the benefit of that doubt and find him not guilty.”
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.