2011 Pa. Super. 266 - Commonwealth v. Pardo’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 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 3 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The fact that Pardo signed a waiver indicating that he would not be permitted to withdraw his plea if the court accepted the plea agreement does not change our decision [to permit plea withdrawal] today. In fact, we find that such waiver provision, which prevents a defendant from the right to withdraw his plea prior to sentencing, flies in the face of the intent behind Rule 591, our Supreme Court’s decision in [Commonwealth v. ] Forbes [ 450 Pa. 185 , 299 A.2d 268 (1973) ] and the line of cases empha sizing the liberal pre-sentence plea withdrawal standard.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 2013 Pa. Super. 199 - Commonwealth v. Gordy

2. “Today we hold that it is an abuse of discretion by the trial court to find that a defendant has waived his right to withdraw a guilty plea prior to sentencing where the defendant enters an open plea with regard to sentence, asserts his innocence, and there is no alleged prejudice to the Commonwealth if the plea were withdrawn. We further hold that the trial court may not curtail a defendant’s ability to withdraw his guilty plea via a boilerplate statement of waiver in a written guilty plea colloquy.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 2013 Pa. Super. 199 - Commonwealth v. Gordy