362 Pa. Super. 408 - Commonwealth v. Taylor’s Empirical Analysis
1987
Citation profile
31 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 31 later decisions — most recently April 2008 · most notably Commonwealth v. Young (1990), 400 Pa. Super. 79 - Commonwealth v. Hudgens (1990)
31 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 Strickland v. Washington · United States v. Woodward · Commonwealth v. Davenport · Commonwealth v. Buehl · Commonwealth v. Evans
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 31 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“(T)o determine whether merger should occur, a court must first determine whether the separate statutory offenses arose out of the same criminal act, transaction or episode. When courts decide under the merger doctrine that two crimes “necessarily involve” one another, it does not always mean that all the elements of one crime are included in the other. It means that on the facts of the case the two crimes were so intimately bound up in the same wrongful act that as a practical matter, proof of one crime necessarily proves the other, so that they must be treated as the same offense. Commonwealth v. Williams, supra [ 344 Pa.Super. 108 ] at 125, 496 A.2d [31] at 40 [1985]. If the criminal conduct arose out of a single criminal act, then the court must determine whether the statutes defining the crimes charged were directed to substantially the same harm or evil. Commonwealth v. Williams, id,., 344 Pa.Superior Ct. at 127, 496 A.2d at 42 . Therefore, even if the criminal conduct consisted of only a single criminal act, the separate statutory offenses do not merge if the Commonwealth has substantially different interests at stake and each is injured by the defendant’s single act. Summarized, the proper rule of merger is that “an individual can be punished only once for a single act which causes only injury to the Commonwealth.” Commonwealth v. Williams, supra, 344 Pa.Superior Ct. at 138, 496 A.2d at 47 , quoting Commonwealth v. Schilling, 288 Pa.Superior Ct. 359, 370, 431 A.2d 1088”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage“§ 3701. Robbery. (a) Offense defined.— (1) A person is guilty of robbery if, in the course of committing a theft, he: (i) inflicts serious bodily injury upon another; (ii) threatens another with or intentionally puts him in fear of immediate serious bodily injury; (iii) commits or threatens immediately to commit any felony of the first or second degree; (iv) inflicts bodily injury upon another or threatens another with or intentionally puts him in fear of immediate bodily injury; or (v) physically takes or removes property from the person of another by force however slight. (2) An act shall be deemed “in the course of committing a theft” if it occurs in an attempt to commit theft or in flight after the attempt or commission. (b) Grading. — Robbery under subsection (a)(1)(iv) is a felony of the second degree; robbery under subsection (a)(1)(v) is a felony of the third degree; otherwise, it is a felony of the first degree.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“The Legislature has established two alternative criteria for determining whether an object is an instrument of crime: the object must either be one which is regularly used by criminals or it must be one which is physically altered in such a fashion as to demonstrate a criminal objective. Commonwealth v. Rodriquez, 316 Pa.Superi- or Ct. 203, 462 A.2d 1310 (1983). A review of the case law leads us to agree that an ice pick and a pair of scissors may not fit within the statutory definition of an instrument of crime. See e.g., Commonwealth v. Durrant, 501 Pa. 147 , 460 A.2d 732 (1983) (a pool cue does not fit within the statutory definition of an instrument of crime); Commonwealth v. Rodriquez, supra (an ordinary razor blade is not an instrument of crime); Commonwealth v. Aycock, 323 Pa.Superior Ct. 62, 470 A.2d 130 (1983) (18" long piece of channel steel is not an instrument of crime).”
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.