12 Va. App. 268 - Nelson v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis
1991
Citation profile
12
cited by 12 later decisions
2
states following
October 2010
most recently cited
12 state decisions
Relationships
Relies on Bishop v. Commonwealth · 4 Va. App. 248 - Bright v. Commonwealth · Moehring v. Commonwealth · Best v. Commonwealth · Reese 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 12 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The Commonwealth relies on the theory of joint exclusive possession of recently stolen property. But, giving the Commonwealth the benefit of all reasonable inferences, as we must, we conclude that the evidence fails to establish joint exclusive possession. There must be evidence of joint control to justify the inference of joint possession. The Commonwealth presented no evidence that [Burgess] exercised any degree of dominion or control over the [stolen vehicle.] The evidence of [Burgess’s] mere presence in the stolen vehicle is not enough to support a conviction of [Burgess] as a princi pal in the second degree.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
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.