Commonwealth v. Pittman’s Empirical Analysis
1987
Citation profile
33 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 33 later decisions — most recently October 2012 · most notably Commonwealth v. Vasquez (2000), 404 Pa. Super. 100 - Commonwealth v. Logan (1991)
33 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 McMillan v. Pennsylvania · Oyler v. Boles · United States v. Batchelder · United States v. Batchelder · Commonwealth v. Wright
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 33 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“(b) Proof at of this section shall not be an element of the crime and notice thereof to the defendant shall not be required prior to conviction, but reasonable notice of the Commonwealth’s intention to proceed under this section shall be provided after conviction and before sentencing. The applicability of this section shall be determined at sentencing. The court shall consider any evidence presented at trial and shall afford the Commonwealth and the defendant an opportunity to present any necessary additional evidence and shall determine, by a preponderance of the evidence, if this section is applicable. (c) Authority of court in shall be no authority in any court to impose on an offender to which this section is applicable any lesser sentence than provided for in subsection (a) or to place such offender on probation or to suspend sentence. Nothing in this section shall prevent the sentencing court from imposing a sentence greater than that provided in this section. Sentencing guidelines promulgated by the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing shall not supersede the mandatory sentences provided in this section.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“If the Commonwealth had no option but to request imposition of a minimum sentence of five years in every case in which a firearm was used, presumably the statute would not have referred to the Commonwealth’s ‘intention to proceed’ under the section. Moreover, in the case at bar, even if it is assumed, arguendo, that the court, not the Commonwealth, could provide notice of an intent to proceed under the act, it could not have provided notice of the Commonwealth’s intent to proceed under the act, for the 'Commonwealth had no such intent, as it indicated at the sentencing hearing, supra.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“Although Pennsylvania courts have repeatedly interpreted the phrase “reasonable notice of the Commonwealth’s intention to proceed ...” as a legislative grant of discretion to the prosecutor to determine whether to invoke a mandatory sentence, this Court maintains that these interpretations are fundamentally flawed.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
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.