Cantrell v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis
1985
Citation profile
2 federal appellate · 63 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 65 later decisions — most recently September 2023 · most notably Frye v. Commonwealth (1986), Riner v. Com. (2004)
2 federal appellate · 63 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 Exxon Corp. v. Department of Revenue of Wisconsin · LeVasseur v. Commonwealth · Virginia Real Estate Commission v. Bias · 163 W. Va. 502 - State v. Atkins · Epperly 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 65 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“His role is more limited than that of the public prosecutor. By the weight of authority, he may not initiate a prosecution or appear before the grand jury; he may appear only by leave of the trial court; he may participate only with the express consent of the public prosecutor; he may make a closing jury argument only in the court's discretion; and he may take no part in a decision to engage in plea bargaining, deciding the terms of a plea bargain, or a decision to accept a plea of guilty to a lesser crime or to enter a nolle prosequi. Although there is no arbitrary limitation as to the proportion of work which may be done by a private prosecutor, the public prosecutor must remain in continuous control of the case.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“Intent ... is a requisite element in many crimes, but motive is not. Motive is merely a circumstance tending to prove the guilt of the alleged perpetrator, as its absence may tend to show his innocence. It is relevant and probative on the issue of identity of the criminal agent, but it is not an element of any crime. “Motive and intent are not synonymous. Motive is the inducing cause, while intent is the mental state with which the criminal act is committed____ The prosecution is never required to prove motive, although it may do so.” Motive has never been a requisite element of the crime of murder in Virginia or in any other jurisdiction of which we are aware.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“each be consistent with guilt and inconsistent with innocence, and ... consistent with each other ... in pointing to the defendant as the perpetrator beyond a reasonable doubt.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage
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.