Commonwealth v. Hawk’s Empirical Analysis
1998
Citation profile
4 federal appellate · 26 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 32 later decisions — most recently February 2026 · most notably Commonwealth v. Koehler (1999), Commonwealth v. Minerd (2000)
4 federal appellate · 26 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 Frye v. United States · Commonwealth v. Griscavage · Martin v. Soblotney · Commonwealth v. Crews · Commonwealth v. Terry
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 32 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“In determining the admissibility of evidence, the trial court must decide whether the evidence is relevant and, if so, whether its probative value outweighs its prejudicial effect. Evidence is relevant if it logically tends to establish a material fact in the case, tends to make a fact at issue more or less probable, or supports a reasonable inference or presumption regarding the existence of a material fact. Evidence that merely advances an inference of a material fact may be admissible, even where the inference to be drawn stems only from human experience. Moreover, even in the case of expert testimony, to be relevant, evidence need not be conclusive. [Citations omitted.]”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“The admission of evidence is committed to the sound discretion of the trial court. Thus, this Court’s standard of review is for an abuse of discretion. Discretion is abused when the course pursued by the trial court represents not merely an error of judgment, but where the judgment is manifestly unreasonable or where the law is not applied or where the record shows that the action is a result of partiality, prejudice, bias or ill will. [Citations omitted.]”
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.