155 Pa. Super. 355 - Commonwealth v. Calio’s Empirical Analysis
1944
Citation profile
17 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 17 later decisions — most recently December 2009
17 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 125 Pa. Super. 407 - Commonwealth v. Sutton · Commonwealth v. McDermott · Rauch v. Commonwealth · Commonwealth Ex Rel. Turpack v. Ashe
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 17 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Superficially considered, the words of the statute might conceivably support the meaning ascribed to them by the court below which held: “If it is a third offense in fact it is immaterial when the previous convictions were had.” But the “object to be attained” is the authentic password to the true meaning of “the words of a law”. Statutory Construction Act of May 28, 1937, P.L. 1019, § 51(4), 46 P.S. § 551(4). We think that it is clear that the purpose of a legislative provision increasing the severity of punishment for repeated offenders is to allow convicted persons an opportunity for reform, but to temper the leniency with a promise of sterner treatment in the event that the milder forms of reproof are not successful. Interpreting the statute consonantly with this purpose, we are required to hold that the heavier penalties shall be imposed only upon those who persist in violating the statute after two convictions have been obtained. This appellant had not been twice convicted before he made the sale for which he was indicted....”
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.