Commonwealth v. Howard

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• holding that “[a] parent has the legal duty to protect her child, and the discharge of this duty requires affirmative performance,” in finding mother guilty of involuntary manslaughter for failing to protect her 5-year-old from abuse by boyfriend
• “A parent has the legal duty to protect her child, and the discharge of this duty requires affirmative performance.”
• mother convicted of involuntary manslaughter for fail ing to protect child from mother's abusive boyfriend
• defendant’s failure to protect her five-year-old child from beatings and abuse inflicted by her boyfriend over a period of at least several weeks was direct cause of death sufficient to impose criminal liability
• mother convicted of involuntary manslaughter for failing to protect child from mother's abusive boyfriend
• criminal conviction requires a “more direct causal connection” than tort liability

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).

Cited by

17 cases in this archive cite this case.

• Commonwealth v. Cottam
  Superior Court of Pennsylvania· 1992-09-17· cited 93×
• Commonwealth v. Barnhart
  Supreme Court of Pennsylvania· 1985-08-16· cited 71×
• Commonwealth v. Cardwell
  Supreme Court of Pennsylvania· 1986-09-18· cited 70×
• Commonwealth v. Rementer
  Superior Court of Pennsylvania· 1991-10-28· cited 62×
• Commonwealth v. Youngkin
  Superior Court of Pennsylvania· 1981-01-05· cited 49×
• Commonwealth v. Pestinikas
  Superior Court of Pennsylvania· 1992-12-10· cited 47×
• Commonwealth v. Nicotra
  Superior Court of Pennsylvania· 1993-06-07· cited 43×
• Commonwealth v. Spotti
  Superior Court of Pennsylvania· 2014-06-05· cited 42×
• Commonwealth v. Vining
  Superior Court of Pennsylvania· 2000-01-04· cited 37×
• Commonwealth v. Katsafanas
  Supreme Court of Pennsylvania· 1983-08-05· cited 35×
• Lane v. Commonwealth
  Kentucky Supreme Court· 1997-06-19· cited 17×
• Hendrick v. State
  Supreme Court of Georgia· 1987-10-21· cited 16×
• State v. Cacchiotti
  Supreme Court of Rhode Island· 1990-01-26· cited 5×
• Commonwealth v. Lomax
  Superior Court of Pennsylvania· 1981-10-30· cited 2×
• Commonwealth v. Curcio
  Lehigh County Court of Common Pleas· 1991-01-29
• Commonwealth v. Derk
  Snyder County Court of Common Pleas· 1993-05-03
• People v. Acosta
  Appellate Court of Illinois· 2026-03-30

Cites

11 cases in this archive are cited by this case.

• Commonwealth v. Root
  Supreme Court of Pennsylvania· 1961-05-02· cited 118×
• Commonwealth v. Comber
  Supreme Court of Pennsylvania· 1953-05-27· cited 90×
• Appeal of Diane B.
  Supreme Court of Pennsylvania· 1974-07-01· cited 77×
• Commonwealth v. Reynolds
  Superior Court of Pennsylvania· 1978-07-12· cited 59×
• Palmer v. State
  Court of Appeals of Maryland· 1960-10-27· cited 56×
• Commonwealth v. Skufca
  Supreme Court of Pennsylvania· 1974-07-01· cited 49×
• Commonwealth v. Moore
  Superior Court of Pennsylvania· 1978-12-14· cited 42×
• Commonwealth v. Bowden
  Supreme Court of Pennsylvania· 1971-04-22· cited 12×
• Commonwealth v. Comber
  Superior Court of Pennsylvania· 1952-03-18· cited 8×
• Commonwealth v. El
  Superior Court of Pennsylvania· 1978-07-12· cited 6×
• Commonwealth v. Skufca
  Superior Court of Pennsylvania· 1972-09-15· cited 2×