Commonwealth v. Heck’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

5 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 5 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““[although the right to an evidentiary hearing is not an absolute one, a hearing should be held on any issue which the PC[R]A court is not certain lacks merit. Commonwealth v. Rhodes, 272 Pa.Super. 546, 416 A.2d 1031 (1979). We will only remand for an evidentiary hearing if it is not possible to determine from the record whether the petition is frivolous and without support. Commonwealth v. Payton, 253 Pa.Super. 422 , 385 A.2d 410 (1978). Otherwise, we will affirm if our review of the record evinces that the claims are patently frivolous. Commonwealth v. Taylor, 491 Pa. 205 , 420 A.2d 413 (1980).””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 433 Pa. Super. 421 - Commonwealth v. Jones

2. ““[t]he information gleaned from the record before us is insufficient to support a finding [by the trial court] of patently frivolous claims. We must, therefore remand the matter for an evidentiary hearing on appellant’s claim that ineffective assistance of counsel before and during his [no contest] plea hearing rendered his plea involuntary and unintelligent.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 433 Pa. Super. 421 - Commonwealth v. Jones