166 W. Va. 153 - State v. Petry’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

113 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 115 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “1. With regard to all cases in which the trial shall commence after the date on which this opinion is handed down by this Court the prior common law rule requiring that aiders and abettors or accessories before the fact be indicted as such is abolished and, hereafter, a general indictment as a principal in the first degree shall be sufficient to sustain a conviction as an aider and abettor or as an accessory before the fact. 2. Where under prior case law a criminal defendant was entitled to be indicted as an aider and abettor in order to be convicted as such, well established prohibitions against ex post facto changes in either procedural or substantive criminal law require that the defendant be allowed the benefit of the common law rule in effect at the time she was tried.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Riley · 170 W. Va. 46 - State v. Adkins

2. “At common law the parties to a felony were divided into principals and accessories. The principals were divided into: (1) principals in the first degree who actually perpetrated the act; and (2) principals in the second degree, known under early common law analysis as accessories at the fact, who were actually or constructively present at the scene of the crime and who aided or abetted directly or indirectly. The accessories were divided into: (A) accessories before the fact who conspired with the perpetrator but were not present during the commission of the crime; and, (B) accessories after the fact who rendered assistance after the crime was completed. 273 S.E.2d at 349 .”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Riley · 199 W. Va. 338 - State v. Bradford

3. “An accessory is one not present at the commission of the offense, but who is in some way concerned therein, either before or after, as contriver, instigator or advisor or as a receiver or protector of the perpetrator. There can be no accessory to a crime not committed by a principal. An accessory before the fact is one who being absent at the time of a crime, procures, counsels, commands or abets another to commit it. Absence at the time and place of the principal offense is necessary to make one an accessory before the fact. The connivance and the result aimed at must occur, and the latter must be the effect of the former in order to complete the crime of accessory before the fact.... An accessory after the fact is a person who knowing a felony to have been committed by another, receives, reheves, comforts or assists the felon. The accessory after the fact, by virtue of his involvement after the completion of the felony, is not treated as a participant in the felony but rather as one who obstructed justice.... It is necessary that the accessory have notice, direct or implied, at the time he assists or comforts the felon, that he has committed a felony.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 199 W. Va. 338 - State v. Bradford