Showers v. Beard’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

8 federal appellate ·

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

1. “The facts in Richter were radically different from the facts and circumstances here. The dissenting judge in the Pennsylvania Superior Court stated that “[t]he defining issue in this matter is whether the victim, who according to the Commonwealth’s theory unknowingly ingested a toxic substance, Roxanol (liquid morphine), would have or could have done so without any evidence that the drug’s acute bitterness was masked so as to conceal its presence.” [Commonwealth v.] Showers II, 782 A.2d [1010] at 1023 [ (Pa.Super.2001) ] (Tamilia, J., dissenting). The properties of Roxanol and the autopsy results were known well before the trial. If Roxanol could not be masked by another substance, the only plausible explanation for the manner of death would have been willing, self-administration. The Commonwealth’s evidence in the case against Showers, other than expert testimony regarding the properties of liquid morphine, was wholly circumstantial, making scientific evidence all the more important. See Duncan v. Omoski, 528 F.3d 1222 , 1235 (9th Cir.2008) (“It is especially important for counsel to seek the advice of an expert when he has no knowledge or expertise about the field.”). Dr. Doyle provided Showers’ counsel with the names of three experts but counsel failed to consult even one of the three experts that Dr. Doyle had already suggested would have supported the defense’s suicide theory.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. Rossum v. Patrick