Commonwealth v. Biagini’s Empirical Analysis
1995
Citation profile
46 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 48 later decisions — most recently October 2025 · most notably Commonwealth v. Hock (1999), 934 So. 2d 1263 - Tillman v. State (2006)
46 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 Terry v. Ohio · California v. Hodari D. · 428 Pa. Super. 597 - In the Interest of J.R.W. · Commonwealth v. Burton · Commonwealth v. French
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 48 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“A person commits a misdemeanor of the second degree if, with the intent of preventing a public servant from effecting a lawful arrest or discharging any other duty, the person creates a substantial risk of bodily injury to the public servant or anyone else, or employs means justifying or requiring substantial force to overcome the resistance.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[I]f the police effectuate an arrest and the arrestee physically resists the officer, and subsequently the arrest is deemed to be without probable cause, nevertheless, the arrestee is guilty of aggravated assault because the officer was within the “performance of duty” when effectuating the arrest. In 1986 the legislature amended 18 Pa.C.S. § 2702(a)(3) and substituted the words “making or attempting to make a lawful arrest” with the phrase “in the performance of duty.” This change broadened the scope of the statute, evidencing an intent to protect officers when effectuating all arrests, even those which are subsequently determined to have lacked probable cause at their inception. See also 18 Pa. C.S. § 505(b)(l)(i). Thus, a lawful arrest is not an element of the crime charged. In order to sustain the convictions for aggravated assault, the Commonwealth must establish that [the officers] suffered bodily injury as a result of the intentional actions of the defendants, while the officers were “in the performance of their duty.””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“(a) Offense defined. — A person is guilty of aggravated assault if he: (3) attempts to cause or intentionally or knowingly causes bodily injury to a police officer ... in the performance of duty.”
2 later decisions 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.