Jones v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis
1984
Citation profile
2 district · 60 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 74 later decisions — most recently August 2010 · most notably Frye v. Commonwealth (1986), Gray v. Commonwealth (1987)
2 district · 60 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 Schneckloth v. Bustamonte · Godfrey v. Georgia · Oregon v. Hass · Jones v. Howard · McDougall v. North Carolina
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 74 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“conduct in committing the offense is outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible or inhuman in that it involved torture, depravity of mind, or aggravated battery to the victim beyond the minimum necessary to accomplish the act of murder....”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. State v. Williams · Jones v. Murray“an aggravated battery such as mutilation, gross disfigurement, or sexual assault committed upon a corpse or an unconscious body”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. State v. Williams · Jones v. Murray“We have held repeatedly that the admissibility of photographs depicting the body of a murder victim is a matter within the sound discretion of the trial court. See Washington v. Commonwealth, 228 Va. 535 , 323 S.E.2d 577 (1984); Clozza v. Commonwealth, 228 Va. 124, 135 , 321 S.E.2d 273, 280 (1984); Stockton v. Commonwealth, 227 Va. at 144 , 314 S.E.2d at 384 . Such pictures are relevant in the guilt trial to show premeditation and malice and, in the penalty trial, to illustrate the nature and degree of the vileness of the crime. Here, the pictures were as “graphic” as those in Stockton, 227 Va. at 144 , 314 S.E.2d at 384 ; as “gruesome” as those in Whitley v. Commonwealth, 223 Va. 66, 74, 286 S.E.2d 162, 167 , cert. denied, 459 U.S. 882 (1982); and as “hideous and grotesque” as those in Waye v. Commonwealth, 219 Va. at 692, 251 S.E.2d at 207, but “no more inflammatory than the medical testimony detailing the results of the autopsy”, Smith v. Commonwealth, 219 Va. at 468, 248 S.E.2d at 143.”
1 later decision 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.