Commonwealth v. Stevens’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

57 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 67 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The trial court is allowed considerable discretion in phrasing instructions as long as they adequately convey the law. In fact, Pennsylvania Standard Criminal Jury Instruction 15.2502F(1) describes aggravating and mitigating circumstances as “things that make a first-degree murder case either more terrible or else less terrible.” Additionally, we have rejected the claim Appellant now advances, declining to find that the trial court instructions as a whole, interfered with the jury’s evaluation of the specific mitigation evidence presented by Appellant or their assessment of his personal moral culpability. These instructions merely expressed to the jury, in laymen’s terms, the purpose for the distinction between aggravating and mitigating circumstances in a capital penalty phase.”

   6 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Johnson · Commonwealth v. Rios

2. “[I]n connection with the death of Brenda Jo Stevens only the following matters if proven to your satisfaction beyond a reasonable doubt can be aggravating circumstances. First, in the commission of the offense, the defendant knowingly created a grave risk of death to another person in addition to the victim of the offense. A person knowingly creates a grave risk of death to another person in addition to the victim of the offense if he’s aware that his conduct is of that nature or that such circumstances exist. Therefore, in deliberating on this aggravating circumstance you should consider all of the evidence concerning the defendant’s conduct at the time of the shooting and the attendant circumstances including the testimony as to the number of people in the bar at the time of the shooting, their relative location and proximity with reference to the defendant at the time of the shooting, the number and direction of shots fired, the danger of ricocheted bullets, whether or not the defendant pointed the gun at another person or persons, evidence of the spent bullets, whether or not the defendant pointed the gun at another person or persons, evidence of the spent bullets in the bar stool, evidence of a hole in the coat of one of the patrons and whether or not that hole was caused by the bullet and evidence of fragments found and their location in the area of the bar.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Wright · 701 F. Supp. 2d 671 - Stevens v. Beard

3. “[w]hen a petitioner alleges trial counsel’s ineffectiveness in a PCRA petition, he must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that his conviction or sentence resulted from ineffective assistance of counsel “which in the circumstances of the particular case so undermined the truth-determining process that no reliable adjudication of guilt or innocence could have taken place.” 42 Pa.C.S. § 9543(a)(2)(iii). We have interpreted this provision in the PCRA to mean that the petitioner must show: (1) that his claim of counsel’s ineffectiveness has merit; (2) that counsel had no reasonable strategic basis for his action or inaction; and (3) that the error of counsel prejudiced the petitioner — i.e., that there is a reasonable probability that, but for the error of counsel, the outcome of the proceeding would have been different. We presume that counsel is effective, and it is the burden of Appellant to show otherwise.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 2000 Pa. Super. 396 - Commonwealth v. Lambert · 2004 Pa. Super. 364 - Commonwealth v. duPont