Commonwealth v. Jones’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

72 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 72 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “No crimes shall merge for sentencing purposes unless the crimes arise from a single criminal act and all of the statutory elements of one offense are included in the statutory elements of the other offense. Where crimes merge for sentencing purposes, the court may sentence the defendant only on the higher graded offense.”

   8 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Davidson · 2014 Pa. Super. 148 - Commonwealth v. Jenkins

2. “The Model Penal Code’s definition of lesser-ineluded offenses identifies three situations in which a defendant may be convicted of an offense included in the offense charged....: (4) Conviction of Included Offense Permitted. A defendant may be convicted of an offense included in an offense charged in the indictment [or the information]. An offense is so included when: (a) it is established by proof of the same or less than all the facts required to establish the commission of the offense charged; or (b) it consists of an attempt or solicitation to commit the offense charged or to commit an offense otherwise included therein; or (c) it differs from the offense charged only in respect that a less serious injury or risk of injury to the same person, property or public interest or a lesser kind of culpability suffices to establish its commission. Model Penal Code § 1.07(4) (alteration in original). Section 1.07(4)(a) reflects the statutory elements approach defined above and accepted by this Court in Jones . In this first scenario, the defendant is given notice of all the elements that the Commonwealth must prove to obtain his conviction. The Commonwealth can convict the defendant only of those offenses that contain all of the elements as the offenses with which the defendant was charged. The defendant does not need separate notice to defend against these lesser offenses because the defense that he prepares against the offenses charged will necessarily attempt to refute the Commo”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. 2014 Pa. Super. 213 - Commonwealth v. Houck

3. “I have no objection to the majority’s approach to sentencing merger in the absence of a specific expression of legislative intent; indeed, consistent with such approach, I believe that it is sensible to treat criminal trespass as a lesser-included offense of burglary. However, I agree with Madame Justice Newman that the Legislature has now evinced an intent in Section 9765 of the Judicial Code, 42 Pa.C.S. § 9765, to require a pure statutory elements approach to sentencing merger.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 2009 Pa. Super. 226 - Commonwealth v. Coppedge