Bell v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis
1994
Citation profile
37 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 37 later decisions — most recently April 2019 · most notably Ernst v. Commonwealth (2005), Woodard v. Commonwealth (2004)
37 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 California v. Green · United States v. Figueroa · Morgan v. Foretich · United States v. Bridwell · Pendleton 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 37 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[e]vidence of other crimes, wrongs, or acts is not admissible to prove the character of a person in order to show action in conformity therewith.”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“KRE 404(b) has always been interpreted as exclusionary in nature. It is a wellknown fundamental rule that evidence that a defendant on trial had committed other offenses is never admissible unless it comes within certain exceptions, which are well-defined in the rule itself. For this reason, trial courts must apply the rule cautiously, with an eye towards eliminating evidence which is relevant only as proof of an accused's propensity to commit a certain type of crime.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“One Is the evidence relevant for some purpose other than to prove criminal predisposition of the accused? .... Two Is proof of the other crime sufficiently probative of its commission to warrant introduction of the evidence against the accused? .... Three Does the probative value of the evidence outweigh its potential for prejudice to the accused?”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
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.