2012 Pa. Super. 271 - Commonwealth v. Nero’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

13 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 14 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “§ 9765. Merger of sentences No crimes shall merge for sentencing purposes unless the crimes arise from a single criminal act and all of the statutory elements of one offense are included in the statutory elements of the other offense. Where crimes merge for sentencing purposes, the court may sentence the defendant only on the higher graded offense. .”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 2017 Pa. Super. 79 - Commonwealth v. Brown · Commonwealth v. Tighe

2. “[W]e compare the elements of the offenses. If the elements of the lesser offense are all included within the elements of the greater offense and the greater offense has at least one additional element, which is different, then the sentences merge. If both crimes require proof of at least one element that the other does not, then the sentences do not merge.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 2016 Pa. Super. 113 - Commonwealth v. Hill · 2016 Pa. Super. 281 - Commonwealth v. Jarosz

3. “On appeal from the denial of PCRA relief, our standard of review calls for us to determine whether the ruling of the PCRA court is supported by the record and free of legal error. The PCRA court’s findings will not be disturbed unless there is no support for the findings in the certified record. The PCRA court’s factual determinations are entitled to deference, but its legal determinations are subject to our plenary review.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 2013 Pa. Super. 63 - Commonwealth v. Ghisoiu