Commonwealth v. Heath’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

10 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 10 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The statute in question here, 42 Pa.C.S. § 9718, contains no notice requirement. The General Assembly has clearly stated that when a person is convicted of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and the victim is under the age of sixteen, the perpetrator shall be sentenced to a mandatory term of at least five years imprisonment. The legislature has left no room in the statute for prosecutorial or judicial discretion to sentence to a lesser term. Unlike 42 Pa.C.S. §§ 9712 through 9715, where the legislature explicitly requires the Commonwealth, after conviction but prior to sentencing, to serve notice of its intent to seek mandatory sentencing, § 9718 contains no such verbiage, cf. Commonwealth v. Pittman, 515 Pa. 272 , 528 A.2d 138 (1987). “Where a section of a statute ‘contains a given provision, the omission of such provision from a similar [section] is significant to show a different intention existed.’ ” Commonwealth v. Bigelow, 484 Pa. 476, 484 , 399 A.2d 392 (1979) (citation omitted). Appellant does not contest the fact that he received notice of the Commonwealth’s intention to seek the mandatory minimum sentence on remand. In this, he received more than the statute required.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 414 Pa. Super. 282 - Commonwealth v. Boyles