Commonwealth v. Shaw’s Empirical Analysis
2000
Citation profile
42 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 42 later decisions — most recently December 2025 · most notably Commonwealth v. Foster (2011), Commonwealth v. Baker (2001)
42 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 v. Tuladziecki · Commonwealth v. Griscavage · Commonwealth v. Horn · In Re MW · People v. Cruz
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 42 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[A] sentencing court [must] carefully review the elements of the foreign offense in terms of classification of the conduct proscribed, its definition of the offense, and the requirements for culpability. Accordingly, the court may want to discern whether the crime is malum in se or malum prohibitum, or whether the crime is inchoate or specific. If it is a specific crime, the court may look to the subject matter sought to be protected by the statute, e.g., protection of the person or protection of the property. It will also be neces sary to examine the definition of the conduct or activity proscribed. In doing so, the court should identify the requisite elements of the crime — the actus reus and mens rea — which form the basis of liability. Having identified these elements of the foreign offense, the court should next turn its attention to the Pennsylvania Crimes Code for the purpose of determining the equivalent Pennsylvania offense. An equivalent offense is that which is substantially identical in nature and definition [to] the out-of-state or federal offense when compared [to the] Pennsylvania offense.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage“It logically follows that although both Pennsylvania’s DUI offense and New York State’s DWAI offense are designed to protect the person and prohibit drunk driving, New York State’s DWAI of fense protects the public from a broader range of reckless behavior than does Pennsylvania’s DUI offense. This is due to the fact that New York State’s DWAI offense casts a wider net of criminal liability, making it criminal for individuals to drink to the point of any impairment and then proceed to operate a motor vehicle, while Pennsylvania’s DUI offense only makes it criminal for individuals to drink to the point of substantial impairment and then proceed to operate a motor vehicle. Thus, there is an appreciable difference in the elements of the in-state and out-of-state offenses at issue, and a corresponding difference in the conduct prohibited by the. offenses which preclude a finding that the offenses are “equivalents”.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“The test to determine whether an out-of-state offense is an equivalent of a Pennsylvania offense requires the sentencing court to compare the elements of the crimes, the conduct prohibited by the offenses, and the underlying public policy behind the two criminal statutes. If the sentencing court determines that the prior offense is equivalent to a violent crime enumerated under a Pennsylvania statute, the defendant will be subject to the mandatory minimum sentence of total confinement. We note that the of fenses do not identically have to mirror each other but must be substantially equivalent to invoke operation of 42 Pa. C.S. § 9714.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
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.