Powell v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 state decisions

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 3 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““When suicide is the theory of defense the decedent’s previous threats or attempts to kill himself are admissible for the same reason. As this court said in Marcum v. Commonwealth, 308 Ky. 740 , 215 S.W.2d 846, 847 (1948), ‘the great weight of authority is to the effect that in prosecutions for homicide the deceased’s declarations or threats indicating a suicidal disposition, if made within a reasonable time before his death, are not within the hearsay rule and are admissible unless the facts preclude the possibility of suicide.’ See Wigmore on Evidence (2d ed.), § 143, and annotation at 83 A.L.R. 434 .””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Drach