Commonwealth v. Lyons’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

8 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 8 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “It seems well established that where the entire transcript of a trial is unavailable, meaningful appellate review is not possible, and a new trial must be awarded. See Commonwealth v. De Simone, 447 Pa. 380 , 290 A.2d 93 (1972); Commonwealth v. Anderson, 441 Pa. 483 , 272 A.2d 877 (1971); Commonwealth v. Homsher, 264 Pa.Super. 271 , 399 A.2d 772 (1979); Commonwealth v. Dixon, 253 Pa.Super. 383 , 385 A.2d 391 (1978). See also Commonwealth v. Shields, 477 Pa. 105 , 383 A.2d 844 (1978) (New trial awarded due to impossibility of appellate review where Commonwealth did not contradict appellant’s argument that the prosecutor’s summation had contained reversible error to which timely objections had been made). In every instance in which a new trial was awarded, however, meaningful appellate review had been rendered impossible due to the absence of a transcript or an equivalent picture of the proceedings at trial. “In order to assure that a defendant’s right to appeal will not be an empty, illusory right, we require that he or she be furnished a full transcript or other equivalent picture of the trial proceedings. Meaningful appellate review is otherwise an impossibility, and fairness dictates that a new trial be granted.” Commonwealth v. Shields, supra at 108-09, 383 A.2d at 846 .”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 2012 Pa. Super. 159 - Commonwealth v. Szakal