2004 Pa. Super. 461 - Commonwealth v. Smith’s Empirical Analysis
2004
Citation profile
13 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 13 later decisions — most recently February 2020
13 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 Blakely v. Washington · McMillan v. Pennsylvania · Harris v. United States · 2002 Pa. Super. 203 - Commonwealth v. Griffin · 2000 Pa. Super. 384 - Commonwealth v. Petaccio
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 13 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Pennsylvania utilizes an indeterminate sentencing scheme with presumptive sentencing guidelines which limit the judge’s discretion only concerning the minimum sentence. 42 Pa.C.SA. § 9721; 204 Pa.Code § 303.9(h). The United States Supreme Court has previously determined that this system does not violate the Sixth Amendment so long as the enhanced minimum sentence is not beyond that authorized by the jury verdict. Harris v. U.S., 536 U.S. 545 , 122 S.Ct. 2406 , 153 L.Ed.2d 524 (2002). Because of the link with the maximum sentence, enhanced minimum sentences, when enhance by factors in the guidelines, are not beyond sentences authorized by the jury verdict. McMillan v. Pennsylvania, 477 U.S. 79 , 106 S.Ct. 2411 , 91 L.Ed.2d 67 (1986). Blakely is only implicated in Pennsylvania to the extent that an enhanced minimum term leads to a longer period of incarceration by extending the date at which the defendant is eligible to be released. Yet, because there is no limit, other than the statutory maximum, on the maximum term a judge may set, and due to the discretion vested in the parole board, the Pennsylvania sentencing scheme and guidelines evade even these Blakely concerns. The Blakely Court, itself, noted that indeterminate guidelines do not increase judicial discretion “at the expense of the jury’s function of finding the facts essential to a lawful imposition of penalty,” and judicial (or parole board) fact-finding does not infringe on a defendant’s “legal right to a lesser sent”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“resistance to sexual assault is not required to sustain a conviction.”
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.