Commonwealth v. Dennis’s Empirical Analysis
2004
Citation profile
3 federal appellate · 37 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 42 later decisions — most recently November 2025 · most notably Commonwealth v. Kennedy (2005), Commonwealth v. Harris (2011)
3 federal appellate · 37 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 · Great State Beverages, Inc. v. Wenners · Attwood v. Singletary · Spring Meadows Apartment Complex Ltd. Partnership v. Stallings
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 42 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“the failure to litigate the issue prior to or during trial, during unitary review or on direct appeal could not have been the result of any rational, strategic or tactical decision by counsel.” 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 9543(a)(3), (4). An issue has been litigated pursuant to the PCRA if the highest appellate court in which petitioner was entitled to review as a matter of right has ruled on the merits of the issue. Further, a claim under the PCRA will be waived “if the petitioner could have raised it but failed to do so before trial, at trial, during unitary review, on appeal or in a prior state postconviction proceeding.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“There is no effective means of reviewing[,] after a final judgment[,] an order requiring the production of putatively protected material.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“involve[es] an issue of immediate public importance. . . .”
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.