Barnett v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis
1992
Citation profile
6 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 6 later decisions — most recently March 2019
6 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 Bixler 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 6 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[t]he purpose of the Rape Shield Statute ... is to insure that [the victim] does not become the party on trial through the admission of evidence that is neither material nor relevant to the charge made.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“In the case of a sexually active adult who claims to be the victim of rape, medical findings that she frequently engages in intercourse would not be probative of the crime charged. However, in the case of a female child who is presumed not to be sexually active, and with whom any sexual contact is prohibited, a medical finding of frequent sexual activity establishes the relevance of evidence that the perpetrator is one other than the person charged. [[Image here]] Omission of the evidence concerning the ongoing sexual activity between the complaining witness and her brother was devastating to appellant in light of the testimony of the examining physician who expressed findings of chronic sexual contact and, without objection, identified appellant as the guilty party. The possibility that the victim had engaged in ongoing sexual conduct with her sibling was not revealed to the physician during his examination and interview of the victim. This revelation may have caused the physician to qualify or omit his branding of appellant as the assailant.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“Upon review of the arguments of counsel, their briefs, and the video transcript of the trial, it is apparent that appellant was convicted based on the child's testimony and the corroborating medical testimony of the examining physician. Appellant was required to defend himself without the benefit of evidence which could have explained the expert's physical findings.”
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.