Commonwealth v. Stratton’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

11 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 11 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “First, a seizure and search ... is reasonable and legitimate if the police officer has probable cause to arrest, i.e., if at the inception of the seizure he has knowledge of sufficient facts and circumstances, gained through trustworthy information, to warrant a prudent man in the belief that the person seized has committed, is committing or is about to commit a crime. Second, even if probable cause to arrest is absent, the police officer may still legitimately seize a person . . . and conduct' a limited search of the individual’s outer clothing in an attempt to discover the presence of weapons which might be used to endanger the safety of the police officers and others, if the police officer observes unusual and suspicious conduct on the part of the individual seized which leads him reasonably to conclude that criminal activity may be afoot and that the person with whom he is dealing may be armed and dangerous.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 298 Pa. Super. 174 - Commonwealth v. Bedsaul

2. “[T]he police officers must be able to articulate facts which aroused their suspicion and a mere allegation that a suspect engaged in “suspicious” conduct is not sufficient to justify a “stop and frisk.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 298 Pa. Super. 174 - Commonwealth v. Bedsaul