2001 Pa. Super. 38 - Commonwealth v. Hunter’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

18 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 19 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “a condition precedent to the exercise by a single county to [venue] in a case involving multiple offenses in various counties is: the offense must constitute a single criminal episode. If a number of charges are logically or temporally related and share common issues of law and fact, a single criminal episode exists. When we ascertain whether a number of statutory offenses are "logically related" to one another, the court should initially inquire as to whether there is a substantial duplication of factual, and/or legal issues presented by the offenses. The mere fact that the additional statutory offenses involve additional issues of law or fact is not sufficient to create a separate criminal episode since the logical relationship test does not require an absolute identity of factual backgrounds. The temporal relationship between criminal acts will be a factor which frequently determines whether the acts are "logically related." However, the definition of a "single criminal episode" should not be limited to acts which are immediately connected in time. "Transaction" is a word of flexible meaning. It may comprehend a series of many occurrences, depending not so much upon the immediateness of their connection as upon their logical relationship.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Callen · 2002 Pa. Super. 365 - Commonwealth v. Kohler

2. “With a decade and a half of federal appellate court experience behind me, I can say that even when we reverse a trial court it is rare that a brief successfully demonstrates that the trial court committed more than one or two reversible errors.... [W]hen I read an appellant's brief that contains ten or twelve points, a presumption arises that there is no merit to any of them. I do not say that this is an irrebuttable presumption, but it is a presumption nevertheless that reduces the effectiveness of appellate advocacy. Appellate advocacy is measured by effectiveness, not loquaciousness. Aldisert, The Appellate Bar: Professional Competence and Professional Responsibility—A View from the Jaundiced Eye of One Appellate Judge, 11 Cap.U.L.Rev. 445, 458 (1982). Estate of Lakatosh, 441 Pa.Super. 133 , 656 A.2d 1378 , 1380 n. 1 (quoting United States v. Hart, 693 F.2d 286 , 287 n. 1 (3d Cir.1982)).”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 2001 Pa. Super. 242 - Commonwealth v. Showers · 2002 Pa. Super. 51 - Commonwealth v. Lutes

3. “A. Whether the evidence is insufficient, as a matter of law, to sustain the verdict because the Commonwealth failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Delbert Showers was murdered by the appellant as opposed to having had committed suicide or, alternatively, whether the verdict was against the weight of the evidence which demonstrated that the victim had a long history of chronic depression, had been hospitalized and under medical treatment for it, had told several persons he intended to commit suicide shortly before his demise, was a high risk for suicide according to a forensic psychiatrist and had committed suicide? B. Whether the trial court erred in permitting the Commonwealth to call several negative character reputation witnesses to testify that the appellant had a reputation for not being honest when she did not place the honesty of her character into evidence; the testimony was based on knowledge of appellant's reputation that was 10 to 15 years old and thus remote, irrelevant and prejudicial; and one witness improperly and prejudicially testified that she was fired from her nursing job and was not trusted by the hospital staff, which testimony was beyond the scope of character evidence? C. Whether trial counsel was ineffective for failing to conduct any meaningful cross-examination of Dr. John Hume, the Commonwealth's psychiatrist, who opined that Delbert Showers was not a suicide risk, which testimony directly contradicted the defense theory that Mr. Showers c”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 2001 Pa. Super. 242 - Commonwealth v. Showers