Case Information
The PJP does research on specific inmates and criminal cases in order to assist their lawyers with the appeals process. See the Charles Widger School of Law Library's guide to free sites for legal research for more suggestions for getting PA legal information.
Information about PA Criminal Cases
Case Search (Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania Web Portal)Provides access to various kinds of court information, including docket sheets for appellate courts, common pleas courts and magisterial district court, and calendars for common pleas courts and magisterial district courts.
Inmate/Parolee Locator (PA Department of Corrections)Search engine for identifying inmates and parolees in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Search on any of the following: name, date of birth, approximate age, gender, committing county, current location, race/ethnicity, country of citizenship, and/or inmate number. Results usually include the information listed above, plus a photograph and all known aliases.
Superior Court Opinions and Postings (Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania)Provides opinions and postings from the Superior Court of Pennsylvania, one of two statewide intermediate appellate courts. You can search the full text of opinions, filtering by precedential vs. non-precedential, or you can do a more detailed search by type of opinion (e.g., concurring opinion, dissenting memorandum, opinion per curiam, judgment order), author, date range, etc. Coverage 1998-present.
Commonwealth Court Opinions and Postings (Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania)Provides opinions and postings from the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, one of two statewide intermediate appellate courts. You can search the full text of opinions, filtering by precedential vs. non-precedential, or you can do a more detailed search by type of opinion (e.g., Complete Opinion, Order, Single Judge Opinion), author, date range, etc. Coverage 1998-present.
PACER: Public Access to Court Electronic Records (Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts) Access Instructions
Provides access to documents from all federal courts: appellate, bankcruptcy, and district. PACER is a service of the federal Judiciary, with a mission of providing broad public access to court records.
Free registration is required in order to search federal court records. Nominal fees are charged for retrieving documents, but all fees are waived if one accrues less than $30 in fees in the preceding quarter.
NEWS SOURCES
The PJP also searches news sources to gain context for public relations efforts and the appeals process. See Falvey's News guide for more information on newspaper searching; see below for local news sources.
Philadelphia Inquirer
Philadelphia Inquirer, 1860-2009 (ProQuest Historical Newspapers)Provides full text access to the complete Philadelphia Inquirer archive up to 2009: the Philadelphia Inquirer (1860-1934), the Philadelphia Inquirer Public Ledger (1934-1969), and the Philadelphia Inquirer (1969-2009). Use Philadelphia Inquirer (NewsBank) for access to current content.
Philadelphia Inquirer, 1981- (NewsBank)Provides full text access to articles published since 1981. Does not include ads, calendar listings, horoscopes, sports statistics, stock tables, weather forecasts, and puzzles.
Philadelphia Tribune
Philadelphia Tribune, 1912-2001 (ProQuest Historical Newspapers)Provides full-text access to articles published between 1912 and 2001. The Philadelphia Tribune is the oldest continuously published African American newspaper in the U.S. More recent articles are available from Ethnic Newswatch (Proquest.)
Philadelphia Tribune, 1991- (Proquest)Provides full-text access to articles published between 1991 and the present. The Philadelphia Tribune is the oldest continuously published African American newspaper in the U.S. Older articles are accessible through Proquest Historical Newspapers.
Other News Sources
Billy PennProvides current news coverage of Philadelphia. Billy Penn is a nonprofit news site owned by WHYY, Philadelphia's local PBS and NPR affiliate.Coverage from 2014 to present.
Access World News (NewsBank) Tutorial
Provides full text access to national and international newspaper articles and radio and television news transcripts. Many newspapers, including the Philadelphia Inquirer, offer full-image “page view” format. Includes user-friendly subject browse feature, as well as full text searchability. Coverage varies.
Nexis Uni Limitations on Use
Formerly known as LexisNexis Academic. Provides full text access to national and international newspaper and magazine articles and news transcripts, business, company, and industry information in the U.S. and abroad, and legal documents, including U.S. Federal and State court cases, and law reviews. Coverage varies.
Limitations on Use:
LexisNexis online services and the materials contained therein are under copyright by LexisNexis. All rights reserved. No part of these Services may be used except for research purposes, and the Services may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the LexisNexis Academic Library Solutions. Materials retrieved from the Services may not be duplicated in hard copy or machine-readable form without the prior written authorization of LexisNexis Academic & Library Solutions, except that limited reproduction of output is permitted solely for individual use by the Authorized User or internal distribution within the Subscribing Institution in accordance with the terms of this Agreement unless further limited or prohibited by the Copyright Act of 1976. Under no circumstances may the Materials or any portion thereof be used to create derivative products or services.
ACADEMIC RESEARCH
The PJP researches relevant academic literature in order to assist with commutation efforts.
Law Review Articles
HeinOnlineProvides full text access to legal periodicals, books, government documents, legal texts, and other primary source collections in the legal field.
Subscription courtesy of the Charles Widger School of Law Library.
Nexis Uni Limitations on Use
Formerly known as LexisNexis Academic. Provides full text access to national and international newspaper and magazine articles and news transcripts, business, company, and industry information in the U.S. and abroad, and legal documents, including U.S. Federal and State court cases, and law reviews. Coverage varies.
Limitations on Use:
LexisNexis online services and the materials contained therein are under copyright by LexisNexis. All rights reserved. No part of these Services may be used except for research purposes, and the Services may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the LexisNexis Academic Library Solutions. Materials retrieved from the Services may not be duplicated in hard copy or machine-readable form without the prior written authorization of LexisNexis Academic & Library Solutions, except that limited reproduction of output is permitted solely for individual use by the Authorized User or internal distribution within the Subscribing Institution in accordance with the terms of this Agreement unless further limited or prohibited by the Copyright Act of 1976. Under no circumstances may the Materials or any portion thereof be used to create derivative products or services.
Social Science Articles
Sociological Abstracts (ProQuest)Indexes the literature of sociology and related fields. Includes citations to journal articles, dissertations, books, conference papers, and magazines. Offers abstracts and selected full text.
Social Services Abstracts (ProQuest)Indexes the literature of social work, human services, and related fields. Includes citations to journal articles and dissertations. Covers 1979 to the present.
Criminal Justice Abstracts (EBSCO)Indexes academic journals, magazines, and books in criminology and related fields. Includes abstracts and selected full text. Coverage goes back to the middle of the 18th century.
PsycINFO (ProQuest) Tutorial
Provides abstracts and indexing to journals, books, book chapters, technical reports and dissertations in all areas of psychology. This database is produced by the American Psychological Association (APA). International in scope; coverage is from 1887 to the present.
Google ScholarGoogle Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites.
Scholar search tips
Medical articles and information
UpToDate (Wolters Kluwer) Access Instructions
Offers evidence-based medical treatment guidelines, clinical images, calculators, drug information, and patient information sheets. All content is physician-authored.
Instructions for installing UpToDate Anywhere on mobile devices.
Tutorial
Offers indexing of journal articles and books in all areas of biomedicine. Worldwide coverage with an emphasis on English-language peer-reviewed journals. Developed by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) and currently maintained by the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
CINAHL with Full Text (EBSCO) Tutorial
Indexes academic journals, standards of practice, trade magazines, continuing education units, dissertations, and more in the fields of nursing and allied health. Includes abstracts and selected full text. Coverage goes back to 1981.