Boone v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

17 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 17 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “"While the types of admissible evidence delineated in Boone are guidelines for the trial court, we do not agree with Appellant that Boone should be read as a strict limita tion on the types of evidence admissible in a penalty phase trial where the defendant has pled guilty. Nor does Boone itself purport to create such a strict limitation: the Court in Boone provided a list of what types of evidence 'might be pertinent.’ Here, because no guilt phase trial occurred, the types of admissible evidence set forth in Boone alone were insufficient in this case to adequately apprise the jury of the nature of Appellant’s crimes. As noted in Boone itself, the sentencing jury cannot be expected to fix punishment ‘in a vacuum without any knowledge of the defendant's past criminal record or other matters that might be pertinent to consider in the assessment of an appropriate penalty.’ With that principle in mind, the trial court must use its discretion in admitting relevant evidence that will sufficiently inform the jury of the crimes committed, while avoiding undue prejudice.”).”

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

2. “a complete reading to the jury of a verbatim transcript or the projection of a [full] videotaped record of the guilt phase”

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

3. “common sense dictates that the second jury must be told something about what transpired during the earlier guilt phase”

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