24 Va. App. 627 - Terry v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

13 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 15 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Notwithstanding any other provision of law, in any prosecution for criminal sexual assault ... the fact that the person injured made complaint of the offense recently after commission of the offense is admissible, not as independent evidence of the offense, but for the purpose of corroborating the testimony of the complaining witness.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Silver · Commonwealth v. Wills

2. “The evidence proved that at the time of the offense the victim (N.F.) was twelve years old. One evening during April 1994, N.F.’s mother, a private duty nurse, had to stay overnight at a patient’s home. The mother asked [Terry], a close friend, to house-sit for her. [Terry] and N.F. were alone in the house that evening. Around 3:00 a.m., [Terry] entered N.F.’s bedroom and raped her. A few months after the rape, N.F. told her friend “Huck” that [Terry] had raped her. She did so after “Huck” told her about his niece having been raped. He encouraged N.F. to tell her mother, but she feared her mother would not believe her. N.F. testified that she also felt partially responsible for the rape because she had asked her mother if she could stay home that night. N.F. further testified that she did not tell her father because she feared he would become angry, injure [Terry], and end up in jail. Sometime after N.F. told “Huck” about the rape, she told her friend, Latisha. While discussing the rape with these two friends, “Huck” threatened to tell N.F.’s mother if she did not. N.F. telephoned her mother, met her at home, and told her about the rape. The mother immediately called the police. Over defense counsel’s objection, the mother testified that N.F. called her on February 10, 1995, and said she wanted to talk. N.F. then reported that [Terry] had raped her in April 1994. The trial judge ruled that the ten month delay in reporting the rape had been sufficiently explained and ruled the”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 112 F. Supp. 2d 543 - Terry v. Cross

3. “We do not read Lindsey as adopting a rule inconsistent with Woodard and the Virginia common law. Under both Woodard and Lindsey , timeliness is a factor in determining the admissibility of the complaint, the weight of the evidence, and the credibility of the prosecutrix. Thus, under Code § 19.2-268.2, timeliness, in relation to the reasons for the delay, must initially be decided by the trial judge in order to determine whether evidence of the complaint can be admitted.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 29 Va. App. 305 - Castelow v. Commonwealth