Smith v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis
1981
Citation profile
12 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 12 later decisions — most recently March 2013
12 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.
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 12 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The trial court might originally have imposed up to five years in the penitentiary or up to twelve months in jail and a fine. Code § 18.2-10(f). The disjunctive language of the statute prescribes penalties in the alternative. When the trial court revoked suspension of imposition of sentence for the first probationary violation and imposed a ten-month jail term, the sentencing authority vested in it by Code § 19.2-306 was exhausted. Because the trial court was without jurisdiction to impose the penitentiary sentence, the order appealed from is null and void. Accordingly, that order will be vacated and defendant, having served the sentence imposed, will be released from custody and probation.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“three years and eight months, the balance of the five years of the suspended imposition of sentence are this day revoked.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“the sentence heretofore suspended is hereby revoked to the extent that you are sentenced to ten months in the City jail.”
2 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.