Commonwealth v. Scott

How courts have described this case

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

• holding that trial court’s conclusion that defendant’s testimony was “self-serving” no substitute for proof
• establishing that a conviction cannot be based purely on “conjecture and speculation”
• overturning arson and risking catastrophe convictions where there was no proof that defendant wanted to cause a fire when the evidence was that she squirted lighter fluid at her boyfriend during a fight and left the room
• in conviction for arson, circumstantial evidence of defendant’s being at premises before fire and squirting lighter fluid on boyfriend insufficient evidence to support conviction
• “The trier of fact cannot base a conviction on conjecture and speculation”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).

Cited by

17 cases in this archive cite this case.

• Commonwealth v. Vargas
  Superior Court of Pennsylvania· 2014-12-31· cited 219×
• Com. v. Spence, O.
  Superior Court of Pennsylvania· 2023-02-15· cited 135×
• Commonwealth v. Swerdlow
  Superior Court of Pennsylvania· 1994-02-04· cited 123×
• Commonwealth v. Urrutia
  Superior Court of Pennsylvania· 1995-01-27· cited 121×
• Commonwealth v. Robinson
  Superior Court of Pennsylvania· 2003-02-14· cited 87×
• Commonwealth v. Gruff
  Superior Court of Pennsylvania· 2003-03-27· cited 75×
• Commonwealth v. Matthews
  Superior Court of Pennsylvania· 2005-03-14· cited 68×
• Commonwealth v. Blystone
  Superior Court of Pennsylvania· 1992-11-19· cited 43×
• Commonwealth v. Calderini
  Superior Court of Pennsylvania· 1992-06-03· cited 31×
• State v. Wynn
  New Mexico Court of Appeals· 2001-04-05· cited 29×
• Commonwealth v. Aviles
  Superior Court of Pennsylvania· 1992-10-22· cited 22×
• Commonwealth v. Berkowitz
  Superior Court of Pennsylvania· 1992-09-22· cited 19×
• Monaci v. State Horse Racing Commission
  Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania· 1998-08-31· cited 15×
• Commonwealth v. Spencer
  Superior Court of Pennsylvania· 1994-03-30· cited 14×
• Commonwealth v. Hess
  Superior Court of Pennsylvania· 1995-10-16· cited 11×
• Com. v. Vargas, J.
  Superior Court of Pennsylvania· 2014-12-31
• Zahorchak v. Neshannock Township School District
  Lawrence County Court of Common Pleas· 2006-12-01