10 Va. App. 41 - Commonwealth v. Hawkins’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

10 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 10 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “A petition for appeal from a circuit court may be taken by the Commonwealth only in felony cases, before a jury is impaneled and sworn in a jury trial, or before the court begins to hear or receive evidence or the first witness is sworn, whichever occurs first, in a nonjury trial. The appeal may be taken from: ! * (2) An order of a circuit court prohibiting the use of certain evidence at trial on the grounds such evidence was obtained in violation of the provisions of the Fourth, Fifth or Sixth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States or Article I, Sections 8, 10 or 11 of the Constitution of Virginia prohibiting illegal searches and seizures and protecting rights against self-incrimination, provided the Commonwealth certifies the evidence is essential to the prosecution.”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Billy Wayne Rodgers · 55 Va. App. 457 - Crawford v. Commonwealth

2. “Reduced to its basic provisions, Code § 19.2-398(2) provides that an appeal may be taken from: “[a]n order ... prohibiting the use of certain evidence ... obtained in violation of the provisions of [the federal constitutional provisions] or [the state constitutional provisions] prohibiting illegal searches and seizures and protecting rights against self-incrimination (emphasis added). The issue to be appealed must be of constitutional dimension, relating to the specific constitutional provisions, but its subject matter is defined by the emphasized language.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Billy Wayne Rodgers

3. “those involving illegal searches and seizures and violations of rights against self-incrimination”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 55 Va. App. 457 - Crawford v. Commonwealth