Commonwealth v. Brooks’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

27 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 27 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “It should go without saying that no lawyer, no matter how talented and efficient, can possibly forge a meaningful relationship with his client and obtain adequate information to defend that client against first-degree murder charges in a single thirty-minute telephone conversation. Although a lawyer can always learn certain information from his client over the telephone, we simply would be discounting the gravity of a death penalty case were we to say that a lawyer representing a defendant in such a case has done his job effectively when he has spent only limited time on the telephone with his client. Indeed, the very nature of a capital case, typically quite involved and always subjecting the defendant to the possibility of death, clearly necessitates at least one in-person meeting between a lawyer and his client before trial begins. Without such a meeting, there is little to no hope that the client will develop a defense plan. Moreover, only a face-to-face meeting allows an attorney to assess the client’s demeanor, credibility, and the overall impression he might have on a jury. This is of particular importance in cases in which the client may take the stand in his defense or at the penalty phase in an attempt to establish the existence of particular mitigating circumstances.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 2012 Pa. Super. 168 - Commonwealth v. Johnson

2. “There is a reasonable probability that counsel’s failure to interview his own client, failure to investigate a potential eyewitness, gross inattention to the capital nature of his client’s plight, failure to prepare for the penalty phase of trial, failure to present known character witnesses, and presentation of such a pitiful parody of a defense case at the penalty hearing, in combination, affected the outcome of the trial. This is a case in which the evidence might have supported a lesser degree of homicide than first degree murder; it is also a case in which a death penalty jury might have rendered a verdict of life imprisonment if appellant’s counsel had presented character witnesses and other mitigating factors____ It therefore seems quite clear that the result of the trial might have been different were it not for counsel’s errors.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Johnson

3. “The law presumes that counsel has rendered effective assistance. See Commonwealth v. Balodis, 560 Pa. 567 , 747 A.2d 341 (2000). Therefore, to prevail on an ineffectiveness claim, [the defendant] must demonstrate that: (1) the underlying claim is of arguable merit; (2) counsel’s course of conduct was without a reasonable basis designed to effectuate his interest; and (3) he was prejudiced by counsel’s ineffectiveness, i.e., that there is a reasonable probability that but for the act or omission in question, the outcome of the proceeding would have been different. See Commonwealth v. Douglas, 558 Pa. 412 , 737 A.2d 1188, 1199 (1999).”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 2004 Pa. Super. 122 - Commonwealth v. Hawkins