Commonwealth v. Roxberry’s Empirical Analysis
1992
Citation profile
42 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 42 later decisions — most recently July 2019 · most notably Commonwealth v. Johnson (2009), Commonwealth v. Dennis (2011)
42 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. Pounds · Commonwealth v. Whiting · Commonwealth v. Saunders · Commonwealth v. Willis · Commonwealth v. Jones
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 42 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The long-accepted definition of alibi is “a defense that places the defendant at the relevant time in a different place than the scene involved and so removed therefrom as to render it impossible for him to be the guilty party.” Commonwealth v. Jones, 529 Pa. 149 , 602 A.2d 820 (decided today); Commonwealth v. Pounds, 490 Pa. 621, 631 , 417 A.2d 597, 602 (1980); Commonwealth v. Whiting, 409 Pa. 492, 498 , 187 A.2d 563, 566 (1963). There is no minimum or threshold quantum of physical separation necessary for a defense to constitute an alibi, so long as the separation makes it impossible for the defendant to have committed the crime. It is theoretically possible to assert an alibi even when a crime occurs in the same building where the accused is located. If a convict is accused of stabbing a guard in the basement of a penitentiary and claims he was locked in a cell on the fourth floor when the crime was committed, he has asserted an alibi defense, because he was “in a different place than the scene involved and so removed therefrom as to render it impossible for him to be the guilty party.””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“Because credibility is indisputably the exclusive province of the jury, we cannot properly permit a judge, under the guise of exercising discretion, to remove the alibi issue from the jury merely because the judge finds the evidence incredible. We do not ordinarily doubt a jury’s capability of resolving difficult factual questions. Many, if not most, trials require the jury to make extremely meticulous and discriminating assessments of credibility. This jury function is fundamental to our jurisprudence. There is no reason, in the realm of alibis, to abandon our trust in jury verdicts and to grant discretion to a trial judge to deliver or withhold an alibi charge depending on his personal assessment of credibility.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“If appellee had testified as he did, but also presented the bartender and four other patrons to corroborate his presence in the bar, one-half mile from the crime scene, throughout the period of time when the crimes were committed, we would undoubtedly agree that the defense was an alibi. Depending on the character and reputation of the five witnesses, we might consider it a strong alibi defense. If a defendant presented the testimony of twenty clergymen to corroborate his testimony that he was attending divine services in a house of worship one-half mile from the crimes, there would be no question that he had presented an alibi defense.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
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.