332 Pa. Super. 239 - Commonwealth v. Button’s Empirical Analysis
1984
Citation profile
32 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 34 later decisions — most recently December 2010 · most notably 344 Pa. Super. 108 - Commonwealth v. Williams (1985), 432 Pa. Super. 183 - Commonwealth v. Wood (1994)
32 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on Green v. United States · Pollard v. United States · Ex Parte Nielsen · United States v. Benz · Commonwealth Ex Rel. Moszczynski v. Ashe
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 34 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“This result finds an analogue in cases where a (mandatory) consecutive life sentence is imposed upon a person already serving a life term who is convicted of assault by a life prisoner, Commonwealth v. Bryant, 239 Pa.Super. 43 , 361 A.2d 350 (1976), or where definite terms consecutive to a life sentence are imposed for offenses other than murder, Commonwealth v. Burgess, 500 Pa. 224 , 455 A.2d 631 (1983) (possession of an instrument of crime); Commonwealth v. Boyd, 271 Pa.Super. 88 , 412 A.2d 588 (1979) (prohibited offensive weapons, criminal conspiracy and robbery); Commonwealth v. Maddox, 307 Pa.Super. 524 , 453 A.2d 1010 (1982) (burglary). If, as appellants assert, consecutive life sentences are not implicated much less mandated by the sentencing statute, then the discretion of the trial court is necessarily the controlling factor____ We may derive some guidance too from the fact that in at least seven other jurisdictions consecutive life sentences have been imposed without challenge, and that in two other jurisdictions such sentences have withstood constitutional attack. [Citations omitted.] Further, despite the obvious limitations dictated by human mortality, there is no statutory provision restricting the length of possible sentences. As the ABA Standards Relating to Sentencing Alternatives and Procedures (Approved Draft 1968) observes: It is very rare for there to be a legislative ceiling on the sentences which may be piled on top of each other. It is the rule rather t”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“Although admittedly [Giovengo] conforms to a statutory procedure no longer in force, our Supreme Court has applied the same rationale in Commonwealth v. Pounds [supra], holding that the constitutionality or otherwise of intervals between conviction and sentencing depends upon circumstance.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“(1) An order of probation. (2) A determination of guilt without further penalty. (3) Partial confinement. (4) Total confinement. (5) A fine.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.