Commonwealth v. Baker’s Empirical Analysis
1992
Citation profile
165 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 177 later decisions — most recently May 2019 · most notably Commonwealth v. Travaglia (1995), Commonwealth v. LaCava (1995)
165 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 Batson v. Kentucky · Scharffe v. Perkins · Local 408, International Brotherhood of Teamsters v. National Labor Relations Board · McKeiver v. Pennsylvania · Griffin v. United States
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 177 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.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“[a]t the penalty phase, where the presumption of innocence is no longer applicable, the prosecutor is permitted even greater latitude in presenting argument. The prosecutor may `present argument for or against the sentence of death' and may employ oratorical license and impassioned argument.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“at the guilt phase, we have long held that statements to the jury are not improper unless their unavoidable effect is to prejudice the jury so that a true verdict cannot be rendered because the existence of bias and hostility makes it impossible to weigh the evidence in a neutral manner. Within these broad limitations, however, the prosecutor is free to argue that the evidence leads to guilt, and the Commonwealth can press its case with logical force and vigor. On the other hand, a prosecutor, may not indulge in personal assertions of guilt of a defendant either by direct statement or indirectly by figure of speech.”
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.