Lofthouse v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

11 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 11 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[Lofthouse’s] conviction of reckless homicide in the case sub judice required proof beyond a reasonable doubt that there was a substantial and unjustifiable risk that [the victim] would die if he ingested the cocaine and heroin furnished to him by [Lofthouse], and that the risk of [the victim’s] death was of such nature and degree that [Loft-house’s] failure to perceive it constituted a gross deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would observe in the situation, ...; ie., that [the victim’s] death as a result of ingestion of the cocaine and heroin was either foreseen or foreseeable by [Lofthouse] as a reasonable probability.... Thus, the Commonwealth needed to prove not only the toxic qualities of cocaine and heroin, but also that a layperson, such as [Loft-house], should reasonably have known that there was a substantial risk that the amount of cocaine and heroin ingested by [the victim] would result in his death. That is especially true where, as here, [Lofthouse] did not directly cause the victim’s death, but only furnished the means by which the victim caused his own death. In the Pennsylvania case of Commonwealth v. Bowden, [ 456 Pa. 278 , 309 A.2d 714 (1973) ], evidence that the defendant injected the victim with the fatal dose of heroin was held insufficient to support a homicide conviction because it was undisputed that the defendant knew the victim’s tolerance level for heroin and injected only an amount which the victim had normally tolerated. ”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. State of Iowa v. Cornell Miller

2. “Thus, we reject both [Lofthouse’s] proposition that furnishing controlled substances to one who subsequently dies from them ingestion can never support a conviction of criminal homicide and the Commonwealth’s proposition that such will always support a conviction. Instead, we hold that guilt of criminal homicide, like any other offense, depends upon proof.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. State of Iowa v. Cornell Miller

3. “a substantial risk that the amount of cocaine and heroin ingested by Buford would result in his death”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. State v. Thomas