Williams v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis
1962
Citation profile
36 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 36 later decisions — most recently June 2001 · most notably Kirkpatrick v. Commonwealth (1970), Satcher v. Commonwealth (1992)
36 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 Zirkle v. Commonwealth · Day v. Commonwealth · Smith v. Commonwealth · Roy v. Commonwealth · Fleenor 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 36 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[B]ut if such evidence tends to prove any other relevant fact of the oifense charged, and is otherwise admissible, it will not be excluded merely because it also shows him to have been guilty of another crime.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“The guilt or innocence of the accused is not the issue before us. The issue here is whether or not he has had a fair and impartial trial according to the law. We do not think he has had such a trial, because of the failure of the trial court to instruct the jury that evidence of the accused's prior attack upon his wife could be considered only to show his motive or intent in making the murderous assault of December 4, 1960. It has been the long established rule in Virginia that in the trial of a criminal case, the Commonwealth may not generally offer testimony of a prior independent crime. That rule has been subject to certain exceptions, one of which is that such testimony may be admissible to show the motive or intent, which is connected with, or leads up to the offense for which the accused is on trial.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“Evidence of other offenses is admitted if it shows the conduct and feeling of the accused toward his victim, if it establishes their prior relations, or if it tends to prove any relevant element of the offense charged. Such evidence is permissible in cases where the motive, intent or knowledge of the accused is involved, or where the evidence is connected with or leads up to the offense for which the accused is on trial. Also, testimony of other crimes is admissible where the other crimes constitute a part of the general scheme of which the crime charged is a part. Frequently it is impossible to give a connected statement showing the crime charged without incidental reference to such contemporaneous and similar crimes and where there is only such incidental disclosure of other offenses.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
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.