Commonwealth v. Rios’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate · 96 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 102 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[A] capital sentencing hearing is not a sanitized proceeding limited only to evidence of aggravating circumstances. Rather, it must, by necessity, inform the jury of the history and natural development of the events and offenses with which the appellant is charged, as well as those which he has been convicted, so that the jury may truly understand the nature of the offenses and Appellant's character. The jury simply cannot perform its function in ignorance of the facts of the crime for which Appellant is being sentenced, or the crimes for which he has previously been convicted, to the extent that those crimes may properly support the existence of aggravating circumstances provided in Section 9711(d).”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Brown · Commonwealth v. Brown

2. “[T]he distinction between 'hesitate before acting’ and 'restrain before acting' is de minimis and clearly such a subtle variation in phrasing would not be an abuse of the trial court's discretion.”). It has done so even though Section 7.01(3) of the Pennsylvania Suggested Standard Criminal Jury Instructions recommends providing juries with a definition of reasonable doubt that includes the word”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Thomas v. Horn · Commonwealth v. Clark

3. “Appellant next claims that the prosecutor misstated the law in arguing that the legislature has decided that “there are some murders that just cannot be tolerated; that are more terrible than just what some people call an average murder, and they have enacted laws after careful consideration that certain killings require or sometimes demand that the penalty of death be imposed.” This statement was improper, he reasons, in that it leads the jury to believe that the death penalty is mandatory for certain crimes. This argument is specious. The prosecutor at no point indicated that certain types of murder carry by law a mandatory sentence of death. Further, the statute itself states that “the verdict must be a sentence of death if the jury unanimously finds at least one aggravating circumstance specified in subsection (d) and no mitigating circumstances or if the jury unanimously finds one or more aggravating circumstances which outweigh any mitigating circumstances.” 42 Pa.C.S. § 9711(c)(iv). As such, there are certain circumstances in which, because of the balance of aggravating and mitigating circumstances, the death penalty is required by Pennsylvania law. This does not run afoul of constitutional safeguards in that the jury itself has the discretion to determine in the first instance whether such aggravators and mitigators are present. Thus, counsel was not ineffective in failing to object to this portion of the prosecutor’s closing argument.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Chmiel