McDorman v. Smyth’s Empirical Analysis
1948
Citation profile
9 federal appellate · 31 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 44 later decisions — most recently March 2011 · most notably Commonwealth Ex Rel. Stevens v. Myers (1965), Peyton v. Williams (1965)
9 federal appellate · 31 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 McNally v. Hill · Myers v. Commonwealth · Clark v. Commonwealth · Butler v. Commonwealth · Commonwealth v. Beavers
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 44 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““Habeas corpus is a writ of inquiry granted to determine whether a person ‘is detained without lawful authority.’ Virginia Code, 1942 (Michie), section 5848. It is available only where the release of the prisoner from his immediate detention will follow as a result of an order in his favor. It is not available to secure a judicial determination of any question which, even if determined in the prisoner’s favor, could not affect the lawfulness of his immediate custody and detention. It cannot be used to modify or revise a judgment of conviction.” Smyth v. Holland, 199 Va. 92, 96 , 97 S. E. 2d 745 ; Smyth v. Midgett, 199 Va. 727, 730 , 101 S. E. 2d 575 .”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
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.