Commonwealth v. Roebuck’s Empirical Analysis
1996
Citation profile
25 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 25 later decisions — most recently March 2024 · most notably Commonwealth v. Bing (1998), 2001 Pa. Super. 148 - Commonwealth v. Belenky (2001)
25 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 Roviaro v. United States · Poola v. UNEMP. COMP. BD. OF REVIEW · Commonwealth v. White · Commonwealth v. Carter · Commonwealth v. Christy
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 25 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“We believe that no fixed rule with respect to disclosure [of the confidential informant’s identity] is justifiable. The problem is one that calls for balancing the public interest in protecting the flow of information against the individual’s right to prepare his defense. Whether a proper balance renders nondisclosure erroneous must depend on the particular circumstances of each case, taking into consideration the crime charged, the possible defenses, the possible significance of the informer’s testimony, and other relevant factors.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage“(2) Discretionary With the Court. (a) In all court cases, except as otherwise provided in Rule 263 (Disclosure of Testimony Before Investigating Grand Jury), if the defendant files a motion for pretrial discovery, the court may order the Commonwealth to allow the defendant’s attorney to inspect and copy or photograph any of the following requested items, upon a showing that they are material to the preparation of the defense, and that the request is reasonable: (i) the names and addresses of eyewitnesses[.]”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage“This unfortunate [reading of our law] places yet another insurmountable obstacle in the path of effective law enforcement to combat the scourge of drugs in Pennsylvania’s beleaguered communities. By this decision, the majority effectively eliminates the use of confidential informants to make drug buys by a police officer acting in tandem with a confidential informant. The majority may blithely ignore the violence and mayhem surrounding the drug trafficking in our communities, but those who wish to aid the police in their enforcement efforts will now do so only at their own peril. New confidential informants will place themselves at risk of deadly retaliation as a result of this decision.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
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.