Commonwealth v. Williams’s Empirical Analysis
1992
Citation profile
4 federal appellate · 127 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 131 later decisions — most recently June 2019 · most notably Commonwealth v. Freeman (2003), Commonwealth v. Brown (1994)
4 federal appellate · 127 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 · Lockett v. Ohio · Penry v. Lynaugh · Proffitt v. Florida · Local 408, International Brotherhood of Teamsters v. National Labor Relations Board
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 131 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[Ajppellant refers to his three previous claims and argues that the cumulative impact of the prosecutor’s misconduct compels reversal.... This claim is mere makeweight, and a rather blatant attempt to bootstrap. We have found no misconduct on the part of the prosecutor, and no number of failed claims may collectively attain merit if they could not do so individually. Appellant’s reliance upon error arising from the cumulative impact of “repeated improper remarks” is misplaced.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“(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 majority“It is true that defense counsel did not precisely reference the language of the mitigating circumstances of which there was some evidence verbatim, or attempt to characterize certain evidence as falling within a specific mitigating circumstance. However, it is clear that defense counsel did argue the facts [underlying the mitigating circumstances of duress and mental duress].... By not specifically tying his argument to one particular subsection, counsel encouraged a greater range of favorable responses and maximized appellant’s chances, given the weakness of the purported evidence in mitigation and the overwhelming evidence of guilt. Therefore, we find no sufficient basis upon which to conclude that trial counsel was ineffective in presenting his closing argument with respect to mitigating circumstances during the penalty phase.”
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.