Beaver v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

8 federal appellate · 70 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 87 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[A] voluntary and intelligent plea of guilty by an accused is, in reality, a self-supplied conviction authorizing imposition of the punishment fixed by law. It is a waiver of all defenses other than those jurisdictional, effective as such not only in the lower court but as well in this court. Where a conviction is rendered upon such a plea and the punishment fixed by law is in fact imposed in a proceeding free of jurisdictional defect, there is nothing to appeal. To take any other view would give recognition to an empty right and permit frivolous appeals for the mere sake of delay.”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Terry v. Commonwealth · 30 Va. App. 192 - Terry v. Commonwealth

2. “Defendant complains of errors of omission committed by his trial counsel. Yet the record contains no testimony from trial counsel concerning his alleged acts of omission. Were we to attempt to dispose of defendant's contentions on this record, we would be called upon to declare the work of an attorney to be ineffective without that attorney having an opportunity to explain his conduct. [citation omitted.] The defendant argues, however, that though the record does not contain everything that relates to the question of ineffective assistance of counsel, it contains enough to establish that trial counsel failed to do things that obviously should have been done and for which there can be no acceptable explanation. However, [Code § 19.2-317.1] does not say that we can proceed where there is partial evidence of ineffectiveness. The statute presupposes a full record on the very issue that is the basis for the claim of ineffective assistance of counsel. We conclude, therefore, that defendant's claim of ineffective assistance of trial counsel cannot be raised in this appeal.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Mu'Min v. Commonwealth · 8 Va. App. 126 - Brown v. Commonwealth

3. “a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel may be raised on direct appeal if assigned as error and if all matters relating to such issue are fully contained within the record of the trial.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 8 Va. App. 60 - Hill v. Commonwealth · Correll v. Commonwealth