319 Pa. Super. 351 - Commonwealth v. Cooper’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

25 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 25 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Because this section [§ 1106] imposes restitution as part of a sentence, its penal character must not be overlooked and it would seem to us that restitution can be permitted under 18 Pa.C.S. § 1106 only as to losses for which the defendant has been held criminally accountable. This is in keeping with the well established principle that criminal statutes must be strictly construed.... In fact, the very words of the statute provide that it is applicable only upon conviction for a crime wherein property has been stolen, converted, unlawfully obtained or its value substantially decreased, or where the victim suffers personal injury directly resulting from a crime. No such crime has been committed here by Appellant. Unless the incidental costs Mr. Harner expended to locate his children have been made part of a criminal proceeding for which Appellant was convicted, it seems dubious to us that due process would permit a court to determine that these are losses that can be passed on to Appellant, as a sentence, under a theory that they flowed as a direct result of the crime for which Appellant was convicted. ... [The superior court and the Commonwealth argue for] a-strained reading of an otherwise straightforward statute which is directed at giving the trial court the ability to sentence a defendant for the damage caused by him in the commission of a crime. Thus, where one steals an automobile valued at $15,000 and during a high speed chase is involved in a wreck which damages the au”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 349 Pa. Super. 583 - Commonwealth v. Mourar · 446 Pa. Super. 43 - Commonwealth v. Walker

2. “In other jurisdictions where this problem has arisen, it has been held that restitution is permissible only as to losses flowing from the conduct for which the defendant has been held criminally accountable. . . . In the Michigan case of People v. Becker, [ 349 Mich. 476 , 84 N.W.2d 833 (1957)], ... the defendant pled guilty to unlawfully leaving the scene of an accident involving personal injury to two pedestrians. As a condition to the probation imposed by the court, it was ordered that defendant make restitution ... to the injured pedestrians. On appeal the Supreme Court of Michigan describing the facts before it related that ‘the criminal has been convicted of one charge, but his freedom from incarceration [i.e., the restitution condition attached to his probation] is related to another act, precedent in time, with respect to which neither criminal nor civil complaint has been made.’ The court vacated the restitution holding that: [E]ven where imposition of the restitution requirement is held to be proper under the circumstances ... it can be imposed only as to loss caused by the very offense for which defendant [sic] was tried and convicted. As to other crimes or offenses there has been no fixing of his liability therefore in a constitutional sense. Id. at 486 , 84 N.W.2d at 838 . The holding of the Becker court is grounded upon the rationale that a defendant is denied due process of law when the losses for which restitution has been imposed did not arise from the action”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 446 Pa. Super. 43 - Commonwealth v. Walker