Bailey v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis
1958
Citation profile
31 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 31 later decisions — most recently September 2018 · most notably Yarborough v. Commonwealth (1977), 27 Va. App. 336 - Lynn v. Commonwealth (1998)
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 Sims v. Commonwealth · Dodson v. Commonwealth · Smith v. Commonwealth · Barnard 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 31 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Excusable homicide in self-defense occurs where the accused, although in some fault in the first instance in provoking or bringing on the difficulty, when attacked retreats as far as possible, announces his desire for peace, and kills his adversary from a reasonably apparent necessity to preserve his own life or save himself from great bodily harm.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“"Homicide [or wounding] in self-defense may be either justifiable or excusable. If it is either, it entitles the prisoner to an acquittal." In either case, he is deemed to be innocent and guiltless of any crime.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““The decisions are not in accord as to whether engaging in sexual intercourse with the wife or daughter of another constitutes such provocation as to deprive the wrongdoer of the right of self-defense when assailed by the outraged husband or father. According to one line of authorities, such illicit intercourse is to be considered the provocation of the difficulty which ensues when discovery of it is made by the husband or father, and the wrongdoer cannot lawfully defend himself against the former’s violence, but must seek safety in flight. This rule, however, has been variously qualified. It does not apply to a case where the husband knows of his wife’s infidelity and lays a trap to catch her paramour, expecting to catch and kill him. Under such circumstances, the paramour does not lose his right of self-defense. “According to the rule prevailing in other jurisdictions, a husband has no right to kill his wife’s paramour, even though he comes on them at the time of the adulterous act; and the paramour may defend himself against a deadly assault by the husband. A like rule has been applied in the case of an attack upon one who entices the wife of another from her home for illicit purposes.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Barger v. State
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.