Commonwealth v. Wine’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 federal appellate · 20 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 21 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Although the law is still developing as to what constitutes ineffective assistance of counsel in the constitutional sense, it cannot be doubted that the failure of counsel to file an appellate brief which results in the dismissal of an appeal constitutes ineffective assistance. It is as if no appeal had been taken. In such a case, the appeal must be reinstated unless the conduct of counsel has been condoned by, agreed to, or is in some way attributable to the client.”

   4 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Moore v. Commonwealth · A.M. v. Commonwealth

2. ““The motion is expressly limited to use when there is a claim of entitlement to release on the ground that the sentence is subject to collateral attack. The sentence referred to is the sentence imposed by the trial court, and it follows that any collateral attack upon the sentence must necessarily relate to some deficiency in the trial proceedings before sentence or some defect in the sentence itself which renders the sentence defective on constitutional grounds. “The frustration of an appeal due to lack of effective assistance of counsel in the appellate process would not ordinarily be considered as a defect in the sentence and would, therefore, not ordinarily warrant relief pursuant to RCr 11.42 which, by its explicit terms, requires the trial court to focus upon the propriety of its own prior rulings without regard for matters which took place after the imposition of sentence.””

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

3. “This case aptly illustrates the need for enforcement of procedural rules relating to appeals. It commenced in 1978 with an indictment, after considerable delay a trial was had in 1979, and it has now languished on various appeals for five and one-half years. It has encountered delay in trial, delay in preparation of the record on appeal, and delay in the filing of appellate briefs which finally resulted in the dismissal of the appeal.... [[Image here]] This case, and others like it, has a tendency to bring our judicial system to its knees.... [[Image here]] Although the law is still developing as to what constitutes effective assistance of counsel in the constitutional sense, it cannot be doubted that the failure of counsel to file an appellate brief which results in the dismissal of an appeal constitutes ineffective assistance of counsel. (Emphasis added.)”

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