Ward v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis
1985
Citation profile
2 federal appellate · 50 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 55 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2023 · most notably Sawyer v. Smith (1990), Sanborn v. Commonwealth (1988)
2 federal appellate · 50 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 Lockett v. Ohio · Hawes v. State · Fleming v. State · 410 So. 2d 1019 - State v. Willie · Ice v. Commonwealth
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 55 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[Irrespective of the answers given on voir dire, the court should presume the likelihood of prejudice on the part of the prospective juror because the potential juror has such a close relationship, be it familial, financial or situational, with any of the parties, counsel, victims or witnesses.”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage“Once that close relationship is established, without regard to protestations of lack of bias, the court should sustain a challenge for cause and excuse the juror.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage““It is the responsibility of each juror to decide whether the defendant will be executed, and they shall not be informed either directly or by implication that this responsibility can be passed along to someone else.” 695 S.W.2d at 408 .”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage
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.