441 Pa. Super. 351 - Commonwealth v. Byrd’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

22 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 22 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Appellant contends that defense counsel was ineffective for failing to petition for allowance of appeal to the Supreme Court on all of the substantive issues raised by Appellant in his appeal to the Superior Court. An appeal to our Supreme Court is not a matter of right, but of sound judicial discretion. Pa.R.A.P. 1114; Commonwealth v. Tanner, 410 Pa.Super. 398 , 600 A.2d 201 (1991), appeal denied, 530 Pa. 654 , 608 A.2d 29 (1992). Review by the Supreme Court is “purely discretionary and will be granted only where there exist both special and important reasons. Pa.R.A.P. 1114. It would be illogical to conclude that a miscarriage of justice occurred by counsel’s failure to seek Supreme Court review unless it is established that the issue was such that review would have been granted by the Supreme Court.” Commonwealth v. Gilbert, 407 Pa.Super. 491 , 595 A.2d 1254 (1991), appeal denied, 529 Pa. 640 , 600 A.2d 1258 (1991).”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 2001 Pa. Super. 246 - Commonwealth v. Padden

2. “while the sentencing court did provide reasons for the sentence imposed, these reasons were advanced to support a sentence in the aggravated range. Nowhere did the court indicate that it was in fact sentencing Appellant outside of the guidelines and provide a contemporaneous statement of its reasons for such deviation.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Wagner