2008 Pa. Super. 235 - Commonwealth v. Morris’s Empirical Analysis
2008
Citation profile
25 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 27 later decisions — most recently December 2025 · most notably 2014 Pa. Super. 273 - Commonwealth v. Thompson (2014), M.A.T. v. G.S.T. (2010)
25 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 Commonwealth v. Tilghman · Commonwealth v. Champney · Commonwealth v. McCullum · Commonwealth v. Bradley · In the Interest of F.B.
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 27 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“A presumption ... exists that the legislature placed every word, sentence and provision in the statute for some purpose and therefore courts must give effect to every word.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage“[T]his Court sitting en banc may overrule the decision of a three-judge panel of this Court”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“(a) Mandatory life imprisonment.— Notwithstanding the provisions of section 9712 (relating to sentences for offenses committed with firearms), 9.713 (relating to sentences for offenses committed on public transportation) or 9714 (relating to sentences for second and subsequent offenses), any person convicted of murder of the third degree in this Commonwealth who has previously been convicted at any time of murder or voluntary manslaughter in this Commonwealth or of the same or substantially equivalent crime, in any other jurisdiction shall be sentenced to life imprisonment, notwithstanding any other provision of this title or other statute to the contrary.”
2 later decisions 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.