Com. v. Washington’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

8 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 8 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “(A) A claim that the verdict was against the weight of the evidence shall be raised with the trial judge in a motion for a new trial: (1) orally, on the record, at any time before sentencing; (2) by written motion at any time before sentencing; or (3) in a post-sentence motion.”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 2004 Pa. Super. 189 - Commonwealth v. Gillard · 2005 Pa. Super. 251 - Commonwealth v. Little

2. “We recognize that the trial court addressed [a weight of the evidence] issue in its opinion filed pursuant to Pa.R.A.P. 1925(a) despite the absence of a post-trial motion. We also note that this Court has previously proceeded to review such a claim where the trial court did so in the first instance in Commonwealth v. Goodwine, 692 A.2d 233, 236 (Pa.Super.1997)(explaining that ‘it is clear that this Court may review a weight of the evidence claim, even if the claim has not been preserved through post-sentence motions, as long as the trial court has addressed the claim in its Rule 1925 opinion,’ regardless of whether the trial court resolved the issue in favor of the appellant.). However, we also note that Goodwine was decided prior to the most recent amendments to the Rules of Criminal Procedure. The present rule clearly requires that such a claim be raised initially by a motion to the trial court, and Appellant’s failure to do so compels us to find the issued waived.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 2004 Pa. Super. 158 - Commonwealth v. MacK