2 Va. App. 633 - Parham v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate · 19 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 21 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “"[Ilegal impossibility occurs when a defendant’s actions, even if fully carried out exactly as he intends, would not constitute a crime. Factual impossibility occurs when the actions intended by a defen dant are proscribed by the criminal law, but a circumstance or fact unknown to the defendant prevents him from bringing about the intended result.””

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 46 Va. App. 161 - Epps v. Commonwealth · 47 Va. App. 687 - George M. Epps, Sheriff of City of Petersburg, Virginia v. Commonwealth

2. “inherent . . . and not to cases where the impossibility has been brought about by outside interference, or grows out of extraneous facts not within the knowledge and control of the accused.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Hix v. Com.