Bowman v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

11 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 11 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “In the case of Parrish v. Commonwealth, 81 Va. 1, 14 [(1884)], this court said: “In the case at bar, the Commonwealth introduced the admissions or statements of Parrish to prove the killing; and, according to all the authorities, ‘if a prosecutor uses the declaration of a prisoner, he must take the whole together, and cannot select one part and leave another; and if there be either no evidence in the case or no other evidence incompatible with it, the declaration so adduced in evidence must be taken to be true.’ ” Roscoe’s Crim. Evidence, 52, 53; 1 Phillips on Evidence, 537; Brown’s Case (Brown v. Commonwealth), 36 Va. 633 , 9 Leigh (36 Va.) 633, 33 Am. Dec. 263 [(1838)]. In the case of Brown v. Commonwealth, supra, it was said: “When the confession of a party, either in a civil or criminal case (for the rule is the same in both) is given in evidence, the whole, as well as that part which makes for him as that which is against him, must be taken together and go to the jury as evidence in the case.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 50 Va. App. 437 - Jones v. Commonwealth