Salisbury v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 federal appellate · 13 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 16 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “When a defendant's attorney is aware of an issue and elects to raise no objection, the attorney's failure to object may constitute a waiver of an error having constitutional implications. In the absence of exceptional circumstances, a defendant is bound by the trial strategy adopted by his counsel even if made without prior consultation with the defendant. The defendant's counsel cannot deliberately forego making an objection to a curable trial defect when he is aware of the basis for an objection.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. West v. Commonwealth · Cummings v. Commonwealth

2. “determine whether the defendant's trial counsel failed to object as a matter of trial tactics, whether he deliberately withheld making an objection in the hopes that reversible error would slip into the record, or whether he was unaware that there was a possible objection.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Cummings v. Commonwealth

3. “an appellate court cannot hold that the trial judge erred in refusing to disqualify himself on the grounds of relationship.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Miller v. Com.