11 Va. App. 380 - Ferrell v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis
1990
Citation profile
45 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 45 later decisions — most recently April 2015 · most notably 18 Va. App. 293 - Wilkins v. Commonwealth (1994), 17 Va. App. 411 - Lafon v. Commonwealth (1993)
45 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on Northern Pipeline Construction Co. v. Marathon Pipe Line Co. · Alexander v. Virginia · Spencer v. Commonwealth · United States v. Shackleford · Cheng v. Commonwealth
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 45 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“... If the evidence of other conduct is connected with the present offense, or tends to prove any element or fact in issue at trial, it should be admitted, whether or not it tends to show the defendant guilty of another crime (underscoring supplied) (citations omitted).”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“A “common plan” exists when the “relationship among offenses ... is dependent upon the existence of a plan that ties the offenses together and demonstrates that the objective of each offense was to contribute to the achievement of a goal not attainable by the commission of any of the individual offenses.” A conspiracy involving more than one offense is a typical example of offenses involving a common plan. Offenses using a “common plan,” however, should be “distinguished from similar character offenses (where the offenses merely duplicate each other).””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent“However, the law will not permit one accused of a crime to go unpunished simply because the Commonwealth cannot prove his guilt without bringing in some evidence which tends to show that he has committed other crimes. Thus, the general rule ... must sometimes yield to society’s interest in the truth-finding process, and numerous exceptions allow evidence of prior misconduct whenever the legitimate probative value outweighs the incidental prejudice to the accused.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.