Burgess v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

15 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 17 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The instruction under consideration, therefore, presents the question on which there is a sharp and irreconcilable conflict in the authorities on the subject; diametrically opposed positions being taken by the authorities, namely: (a) That it is sufficient to constitute an assault that the party assailed is put in well founded fear or apprehension of bodily harm, although the assailant has in fact no intention to strike the party assailed and the latter is not in fact put in actual peril; and (b), that (where there is no battery) the putting of the party assailed in actual peril is essential to constitute an assault upon him. And since in a criminal prosecution for assault the existence of a criminal intent on the part of the accused is essential to his guilt, as corollary to the opposing views of such respective lines of decision, such lines of decision respectively hold: (c) That to render one guilty of the offense of an assault, it is sufficient that the act done is with the intent to put the party assailed in fear or apprehension of bodily harm, and that by the act he is in fact put in well founded fear or apprehension of such harm; and, (d) that to render one thus guilty, it is essential that the act done must be with the intent to do bodily harm to the party assailed, and the latter (where there is no battery) must be put in actual peril of bodily harm. * * * * * * ... We think that, both in reason and in accordance with the great weight of modern authority, the positio”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 42 Va. App. 681 - Carter v. Commonwealth

2. “Was instruction No. 1 erroneous, in that it told the jury, in substance, that if they believed from the evidence that the accused, “before the officer was out of shooting distance,” shot “in such manner and under such circumstances as would naturally lead the officer to believe that the pistol was being shot at him and with intent to terrify the officer, they should find him guilty of simple assault, notwithstanding the accused had no intention to strike him.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 42 Va. App. 681 - Carter v. Commonwealth

3. “All courts, whether nisi prius or appellate, having properly obtained jurisdiction of any case, criminal as well as civil, have unquestionable jurisdiction so long as its orders or decrees on any subject have not become final, to rehear the case for any proper purpose and certainly to correct a manifest clerical error is a proper purpose to induce the court to exercise such jurisdiction.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Dolan v. Betz