63 Ill. 2d 354 - People v. Blakes’s Empirical Analysis
1976
Citation profile
103 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 103 later decisions — most recently August 2025 · most notably 124 Ill. App. 3d 516 - People v. Hunter (1984), 109 Ill. 2d 102 - People v. Adams (1985)
103 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 40 Ill. 2d 522 - The People v. Williams · 49 Ill. 2d 98 - The People v. Burris · 10 Ill. 2d 208 - The PEOPLE v. Lion · People v. Blakes
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 103 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“`[I]f it is developed in a trial that a witness exists, presumably under the control of a defendant, who can throw light upon a vital matter, and he is not produced, certainly a jury may fairly consider that fact, and, likewise, counsel would have a legitimate right to comment thereon. * * * * * * [T]hough failure to call a witness or produce evidence may not be relied on as substantial proof of the charge, nonetheless, if other evidence tends to prove the guilt of a defendant and he fails to bring in evidence within his control in explanation or refutation, his omission to do so is a circumstance entitled to some weight in the minds of the jury, and, as such, is a legitimate subject of comment by the prosecution.'”
8 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“a lot of others, but I can't remember everybody's name.”
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.