23 Va. App. 715 - Spivey v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

21 state decisions

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 21 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Here, a confidential and reliable informant had observed a recent drug sale at defendant’s residence, an activity common to the premises, where defendant reputedly possessed a handgun. Defendant’s son and drug supplier, Duane, resided nearby, was often at defendant’s home and had been arrested two days previously for shooting into an unoccupied vehicle. When the warrant was executed Duane’s whereabouts were unknown to the police. The officers were, therefore, cognizant that two firearms were possibly present in the residence, each in the possession of a drug dealer, one of whom had recently been charged with a weapons violation.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 117 Md. App. 133 - Wynn v. State

2. “While violations of state procedural statutes are viewed with disfavor, ... neither the Virginia Supreme Court nor the legislature has adopted an exclusionary rule for such violations [ ] ... where no deprivation of the defendant’s constitutional rights occurred. [Historically, searches or seizures made contrary to provisions contained in Virginia statutes provide no right of suppression unless the statute supplies that right.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 29 Va. App. 433 - Newton v. Commonwealth