Commonwealth v. Ligons’s Empirical Analysis
2001
Citation profile
22
cited by 22 later decisions
2
cited 2 times by the Supreme Court
1
states following
July 2015
most recently cited
20 state decisions
Relationships
Relies on Brady v. State of Maryland · Kyles v. Whitley · Commonwealth v. Zettlemoyer · Commonwealth v. Kloiber · Commonwealth v. Travaglia
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 22 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[h]ere, although the prosecutor’s argument did not constitute victim impact evidence, as the arguments of counsel are not evidence ... the commentary touched upon the circumstances of the victim and his family. Ligons, however, offered, as mitigating circumstances, evidence that he was a good father, helped care for his grandmother, endured a troubled and difficult childhood, and had been unloved and abandoned by his mother. The prosecutor’s remarks were offered to counter the sympathy associated with Ligons’ mitigating evidence by contrasting his circumstances with those of the victim. Given such context, we decline to conclude that the remarks so prejudiced the jury that it could not weigh the evidence objectively and render a true verdict.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“What you heard today revolved around one person, the defendant. You heard nothing about [the victim] today but you must remember that this case really is about [the victim] and the fact that he did not have opportunities to be with his family, to be with his children, to be with his wife, mother, brothers, sister, after this incident. He was only 31 years old. He was trying to make a living. He was trying to earn whatever you could earn as a pizza deliveryman. The defendant didn’t take the effort, didn’t make the effort to do that himself, to help support his family. He let his grandmother support his girlfriend and his child for him, not because he was lacking in intelligence or even lacking in ability to work and earn money.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
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.