Commonwealth v. Fletcher’s Empirical Analysis
2004
Citation profile
72 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 75 later decisions — most recently December 2021 · most notably Commonwealth v. Davidson (2007), Commonwealth v. Gibson (2008)
72 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on Batson v. Kentucky · Powers v. Ohio · Zant v. Stephens · Estelle v. Smith · Local 408, International Brotherhood of Teamsters v. National Labor Relations Board
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 75 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“In considering this claim, our attention is focused on whether the defendant was deprived of a fair trial, not a perfect one. Not every unwise remark on a prosecutor’s part constitutes reversible error. Indeed, the test is a relatively stringent one. Generally speaking, a prosecutor’s comments do not constitute reversible error unless the unavoidable effect of such comments would be to prejudice the jury, forming in their minds fixed bias and hostility toward [Appellant] so that they could not weight the evidence objectively and render a true verdict. Prosecutorial misconduct, however, will not be found where comments were based on evidence or proper inferences therefrom or were only oratorical flair. In order to evaluate whether comments were improper, we must look to the context in which they were made. Finally, when a trial court finds that a prosecutor’s comments were inappropriate, they may be appropriately cured by a cautionary instruction to the jury.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“this aggravating circumstance clearly narrows the class of persons eligible for the death penalty by excluding those individuals who have not been convicted of another murder. Moreover, the “multiple murder” aggravator reasonably justifies the imposition of a more severe sentence because, based upon their risk of danger to general society, those individuals convicted of multiple murders warrant a harsher punishment. As such, the “multiple murder” aggravator comports with the necessary requirements of the Eighth Amendment and the Due Process Clause.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“This Court has consistently repeated the principle that although evidence of good character may not be rebutted by evidence of specific acts of misconduct, a character witness may be cross-examined regarding his or her knowledge of particular acts of misconduct by the defendant to test the accuracy of his or her testimony and the standard by which he or she measures reputation.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
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.