Commonwealth v. Lesko’s Empirical Analysis
1983
Citation profile
5 federal appellate · 31 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 39 later decisions — most recently May 2022 · most notably Commonwealth v. Buehl (1986), Commonwealth v. Travaglia (1983)
5 federal appellate · 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 Commonwealth Ex Rel. Washington v. Maroney · Commonwealth v. Hubbard · Commonwealth v. Travaglia · Commonwealth v. Forbes · Commonwealth v. Starr
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 39 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The basis for the difference between these two standards is clear. Allowing an accused to withdraw his guilty plea after imposition of sentence requires a stricter standard to prevent defendants from using a guilty plea as a tool for previewing the sentencing by the court. Such a misuse does not occur when withdrawing a guilty plea prior to sentencing. The lower court applied the “manifest injustice” standard, reasoning that the [a]ppellant was pre-advised of the only possible sentence. Therefore, the [a]ppellant’s petition was akin to a post-sentencing petition. Because the [a]ppellant was well aware of the only possible sentence imposable for the crime to which he pled guilty, we find no error in applying the “manifest injustice” standard. In any event, applying the “fair and just reason” standard will not give the Appellant the requested relief.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“In the lower court opinion, the trial judge found that ‘the evidence established: that the defendant entered his plea of guilty to second degree murder upon agreement of the Commonwealth to delay sentencing as a deliberate choice of trial strategy in an effort to prevent evidence of his criminal acts in Indiana County from being considered as an aggravating circumstance during his first degree murder trial for killing a Westmoreland County police officer.’ (R. 51). The Appellant agrees with this finding and now argues that his trial counsel was ineffective for persuading him to plead guilty in that trial counsel’s conception of the use of this plea in the Westmoreland County case was in error. Because it appears that the action of the Appellant’s trial counsel was a calculated attempt to avoid the use of any Indiana County conviction in the Westmoreland County case as an aggravating circumstance, trial counsel cannot be deemed to be ineffective. ____ It was hoped that by following this course, the Westmoreland County judge would disallow the Indiana County guilty plea from being introduced in the penal phase of the trial as an aggravating circumstance, because no sentence had been imposed in Indiana County. However, the Westmoreland County trial judge correctly determined that the plea was admissible. Although.trial counsel’s strategy failed, he cannot be deemed ineffective. Having determined that trial counsel’s actions were reasonable and designed to protect the Appellant’s”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“[t]he Appellant argues that by the terms of the agreement, the Indiana County conviction could not be used in his Westmoreland County trial”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Lesko v. Owens
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.