13 Va. App. 349 - Fleming v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis
1991
Citation profile
48 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 48 later decisions — most recently May 2019 · most notably 29 Va. App. 548 - Ellis v. Commonwealth (1999), 44 Va. App. 287 - Cirrito v. Cirrito (2004)
48 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 11 Va. App. 535 - Rollston v. Commonwealth · Merritt v. Commonwealth · Dowdy v. Commonwealth · 11 Va. App. 530 - Bell v. Commonwealth · Dusenbery 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 48 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[a] violation of the statute may be established upon proof that a person unlawfully discharged a firearm at or in the direction of an occupied [building] if the person knew or should have known that the [building] was in the line of fire, even if the person did not specifically intend to shoot at or into the [building]. The fact finder may infer that the perpetrator had an unlawful intent from the commission of an unlawful act.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“If any person maliciously discharges a firearm within any building when occupied by one or more persons in such a manner as to endanger the life or lives of such person or persons, or maliciously shoots at, or maliciously throws any missile at or against any dwelling house or other building when occupied by one or more persons, whereby the life or lives of any such person or persons may be put in peril, the person so offending is guilty of a Class 4 felony---- If any such act be done unlawfully, but not maliciously, the person so offending is guilty of a Class 6 felony;----”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“The word “at” has a common and easily understood meaning and is defined as a function word used to indicate ... that toward which an action ... is directed. Thus, all that is required of the Commonwealth to prove a violation of Code § 18.2-279 is that it prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the principal in the first degree intended to shoot at or toward an occupied dwelling.”
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.