259 Pa. Super. 301 - Commonwealth v. Norman’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

9 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 9 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Our courts impose this obligation upon the Commonwealth because “. . . [i]n any criminal prosecution, the Commonwealth has an unshifting burden to prove beyond a reasonable doubt all elements of the crime.” Commonwealth v. Rose, 457 Pa. 380, 389 , 321 A.2d 880, 884 (1974). See also Commonwealth v. Moyer, 466 Pa. 464, 468 , 353 A.2d 447, 449 (1976). In attempting to meet this burden, the Commonwealth may rely on either expert or lay testimony. Commonwealth v. Vogel, 468 Pa. 438 , 364 A.2d 274 (1976); Commonwealth v. Bruno, supra; Commonwealth v. Demmitt, supra [ 456 Pa. 475 , 321 A.2d 627 (1974)]; Commonwealth v. Donotrio, 247 Pa.Super. 345 , 372 A.2d 859 (1977); Commonwealth v. Ross, 239 Pa.Super. 94 , 361 A.2d 685 (1976); Commonwealth v. Washington, 235 Pa. Super. 339 , 340 A.2d 896 (1975). As the Supreme Court stated in Commonwealth v. Demmitt, “[t]his evidence may come from testimony of [lay] witnesses concerning the defendant’s actions, conversations, and statements at the time of the [act in question] from which the jury could find that he knew what he was doing when he [performed the act in question] and knew it was wrong. 259 Pa. Super. at 313 , 393 A.2d at 843. (Opinion in support of reversal by HOFFMAN, J., joined by JACOBS, P. J. and SPAETH, J.)”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 283 Pa. Super. 315 - Commonwealth v. DiValerio