444 Pa. Super. 570 - Commonwealth v. Perez’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. “In reviewing the entire record to determine the propriety of a new trial, an appellate court must first determine whether the trial judge’s reasons and factual basis can be supported. Unless there are facts and inferences of record that disclose a palpable abuse of discretion, the trial judge’s reasons should prevail. It is not the place of an appellate court to invade the trial judge’s discretion any more than a trial judge may invade the province of a jury, unless both or either have palpably abused their function. To determine whether a trial court’s decision constituted a palpable abuse of discretion, an appellate court must “examine the record and assess the weight of the evidence; not however, as the trial judge, to determine whether the preponderance of the evidence opposes the verdict, but rather to determine whether the court below in so finding plainly exceeded the limits of judicial discretion and invaded the exclusive domain of the jury.” Where the record adequately supports the trial court, the trial court has acted within the limits of its judicial discretion.”

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

2. “Before addressing the merits of Perez’s claims, we must consider the effect of his failure to file post-verdict motions. Because Perez was found guilty in June of 1993, Rule 1123 required that he preserve any issues for appeal by first submitting them to the trial court in a post-verdict motion. Perez’s weight and sufficiency arguments are therefore technically waived. Even so, the trial court chose to address the issue of sufficiency of the evidence. When an issue is waived for failure to comply with post-trial procedural rules but the trial court chooses to overlook the error and addresses the issue, an appellate court is bound to do likewise. We therefore will consider Perez’s claim that his murder verdict was not supported by sufficient evidence.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 2004 Pa. Super. 334 - Commonwealth v. Melendez-Rodriguez

3. “When a weight claim is raised for the first time on appeal, an appellate court may address and reject it only when there is absolutely no record support for a defense verdict. When there is simply no record evidence which weighs in the defendant’s favor, we would have to hold that for a trial court to find the verdict against the weight of the evidence would necessarily constitute an abuse of discretion.”

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