Sharp v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis
1993
Citation profile
16 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 16 later decisions — most recently April 2019
16 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 Commonwealth v. Benham · Globe Indemnity Company v. Daviess · Drumm v. Commonwealth · O'Bryan v. Commonwealth · Souder 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 16 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The child victim on the witness stand was a crucial witness for the Commonwealth. Her demeanor during testimony and her ability to withstand cross-examination inevitably influenced the jury as to whether or to what extent she should be believed. Even taking Ms. Hess’s version of what she did at face value, the witness received encouragement, approval and comfort at the time her credibility was being assessed by the juiy. It would be impossible to say that the witness did not derive confidence and assurance from this positive reinforcement which influenced the jury to believe her.” 849 S.W.2d at 547 .”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage“[t]here may be a temptation among judges to let pity for small children who may have been victimized . . . overcome their duty to enforce the rules of evidence. . . . "The rules of evidence have evolved carefully and painstakingly over hundreds of years as the best system for arriving at the truth. They bring to the law its objectivity. Their purpose would be subverted if courts were permitted to disregard them at will . . . [O]beying these rules is the best way to produce evidence of a quality likely to produce a just result."”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“The bystander who observed Ms. Hess was convinced that the gestures told the child whether to answer yes or no to the questions asked and whether she approved of the child's answers. Ms. Hess denied suggesting any answers to the child, but admitted that by gestures she sought to comfort and encourage the child during her testimony. She admitted to mouthing "You're doing fine" and admitted that she gave approving gestures by winks and a thumbs-up sign.”
1 later decision 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.