Davidson v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis
1992
Citation profile
24 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 26 later decisions — most recently February 2017 · most notably Goins v. Commonwealth (1996), Walker v. Commonwealth (1999)
24 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 Needler v. Valley National Bank of Arizona · Brewster v. Derwinski · Nagac v. Derwinski · Deboue v. Louisiana · Hardcastle v. Pennsylvania
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 26 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[w]e construe the words ‘depravity of mind’ as used [in Code § 19.2-264.2] to mean a degree of moral turpitude and psychical debasement surpassing that inherent in the definition of ordinary legal malice and premeditation. Contextually, we construe the words ‘aggravated battery’ to mean a battery which, qualitatively and quantitatively, is more culpable than the minimum necessary to accomplish an act of murder. [Citation omitted]. It seems to us that these are the only constructions rationally related to the commonly accepted connotation of the prefatory words, ‘outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible or inhuman.’”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“his decision to waive his appeal was made knowingly, voluntarily, and intelligently,”
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.