Skip to main content
Federal & State Lawfederalstatelaw.com
Home/Federal/Cases
Superior Court of Pennsylvania· 10/26/1992

Commonwealth v. Hernandez

Citations

  • 615 A.2d 1337
  • 420 Pa. Super. 1
  • 1992 Pa. Super. LEXIS 3663

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

  • rejecting claim that DHS social worker’s testimony that, after interviewing victim, an “indicated report” was made, invaded province of jury
  • analyzing cases applying low-grade jury instruction and concluding instruction is usually appropriate only in cases involving opinion testimony by psychiatrist, where insanity defense has been raised
  • finding social worker explaining to jury that she found child abuse case was “indicated” based, in part, on interview with victim and victim’s mother, did not unduly bolster credibility of victim
  • affirming conviction for sexual abuse of minor when trial court gave cautionary instruction “that only the jury was the factfinder ... and [that] it ‘must not and may not accept any standard adopted by DHS’ ”
  • finding counsel was not ineffective for failing to object to caseworker’s testimony that “was nothing more than the chronology of events which ultimately led to the charges being initiated against” the defendant
  • finding counsel was not ineffective for failing to object to caseworker’s testimony that report was “indicated” where caseworker “was not qualified as, nor had she presented herself as, any type of expert in child sexual abuse”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).

Judges: Rowley, Johnson, Brosky

Read full opinion on CourtListener

Cited by

10 cases in this archive cite this case.

Cites

27 cases in this archive are cited by this case; the 20 most cited are listed.

Other cases with this name

Sourced from CourtListener / Free Law Project (CC0).

This is legal information, not legal advice. Laws vary by jurisdiction and change frequently. Always verify current law with official sources and consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction for advice on your specific situation.