Day v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 federal appellate · 50 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 55 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The accepted rule to be derived from the cases is that evidence which shows or tends to show the accused guilty of the commission of other offenses at other times is inadmissible if its only relevancy is to show the character of the accused or his disposition to commit an offense similar to that charged; but if such evidence tends to prove any other relevant fact of the offense charged, and is otherwise admissible, it will not be excluded merely because it also shows him to have been guilty of another crime.”

   6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 7 Va. App. 596 - Lewis v. Commonwealth · Satcher v. Commonwealth

2. “[I]t frequently happens “that as the evidence of circumstances must be resorted to for the purpose of proving the commission of the particular offense charged, the proof of those circumstances involves the proof of other acts, either criminal or apparently innocent. In such cases, it is proper, that the chain of evidence should be unbroken. If one or more links of that chain consist of circumstances, which tend to prove that the prisoner has been guilty of other crimes than that charged, this is no reason why the court should exclude those circumstances. They are so intimately connected and blended with the main facts adduced in evidence, that they cannot be departed from with propriety; and there is no reason why the criminality of such intimate and connected circumstances, should exclude them, more than other facts apparently innocent. . . . But if the circumstances have no intimate connection with the main fact; if they constitute no link in the chain of evidence; then, supposing them innocent, their admission, to be sure, may do no harm, yet they ought to be excluded, because they are irrelevant; but if they denote other guilt, they are not only irrelevant, but they do injury, because they have a tendency to prejudice the minds of the jury; and for this additional reason they ought to be excluded.””

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Kirkpatrick v. Commonwealth · 13 Va. App. 450 - Copeland v. Commonwealth

3. “"[S]he was standing on the corner of Grace and Knight Streets waiting for a bus at 7:10 o'clock on the night of February 1, 1954. While she was standing there she stated she saw the defendant, or a man she felt reasonably sure was the defendant, Earl Day, coming towards her. She was frightened and started to run and he started to run after her. She saw the bus coming and she ran to the bus and he chased her to the door of the bus. As she was getting on the bus she heard him call something like, `You had better run.' [S]he said the man was [Day] but she did not see his features but the man wore a white cap and a jacket like the ones belonging to [Day] and which were exhibited to her.... At this time [upon returning over the same route on the next bus] she saw the same man who had chased her at Knight and Grace Streets standing near the corner of Locust and Grace Streets, which was one city block from Grace and Knight Streets. She never did see the man's face so as to positively identify him but she did notice he was wearing a similar cap and jacket to those worn by the man who had chased her."”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 7 Va. App. 596 - Lewis v. Commonwealth · Satcher v. Commonwealth