Bradshaw v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis
1939
Citation profile
3 federal appellate · 34 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 39 later decisions — most recently September 2001 · most notably Buchanan v. Commonwealth (1989), Peterson v. Commonwealth (1983)
3 federal appellate · 34 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 Burton & Conquest v. Commonwealth · Bell v. Commonwealth · Ballard v. Commonwealth · Webb v. Commonwealth · Bryan 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 39 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““ ‘The test of murder is malice. Every malicious killing is murder either in the first or second degree—the former if deliberate and premeditated, and the latter if not. Furthermore, there is a prima facie presumption of malice arising from the mere fact of a homicide, but there is no presumption therefrom of deliberation and premeditation. That is merely another way of stating the familiar rule of law that every homicide is prima facie, murder in the second degree, and that the burden is on the accused to reduce, and on the Commonwealth to elevate, the grade of the offense.’ Jacobs v. Commonwealth, 132 Va. 681 , 111 S. E. 90 . “ ‘The determination of the grade or degree of homicide is a question for the jury.’ 2 Michie on Homicide, p. 1388. “ ‘The sufficiency of the evidence on one hand to establish the wilful, deliberate and premeditated character of the act, or, on the other, to rebut the presumption of malice, is generally a question which lies peculiarly within the province of the jury.’ Bryan v. Commonwealth, 131 Va. 709 , 109 S. E. 477 . “ ‘We have held in perfectly clear cases that the evidence was not sufficient to show malice, even where the jury had found to the contrary, but malice is a subjective condition of mind, discoverable only by words and conduct, and the significance of the words and conduct of an accused person, wherever there can be doubt about such significance, addresses itself peculiarly to the consideration of the jury.’ Jacobs v. Commonwealth, supr”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““INSTRUCTION NO. E “The Court instructs the jury that even if you believe from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that the Defendant, Roy Lee Bryson, did for himself or another person, buy, sell or transfer, or have in his possession for the purpose of sale or with the intent to exchange, negotiate or transfer, or aid in selling, exchanging, negotiating or transferring, a chance or ticket in, or share of a ticket in, a lottery but you have a reasonable doubt as to whether such act consisted of the operation or conduct of a lottery commonly known as a numbers game or numbers racket, then you will find the Defendant not guilty of the felony as charged in the indictment but only guilty of a misdemeanor and fix his punishment by confinement in jail not exceeding a year and a fine not exceeding $500.00 either or both.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“any willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Baker v. Muncy
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.