McCloud v. Com.’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

19 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 19 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “likely to engage in sexually violent acts.”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Proffitt · Shivaee v. Com.

2. “'previous instances of violent behavior are an important indicator of future violent tendencies.' " Kansas v. Hendricks , 521 U.S. 346 , 358, 117 S.Ct. 2072 , 138 L.Ed.2d 501 (1997) (quoting Heller v. Doe , 509 U.S. 312 , 323, 113 S.Ct. 2637 , 125 L.Ed.2d 257 (1993) ); see also McCloud , 269 Va. at 257 -58 , 609 S.E.2d at 24 ("Beyond question, evidence that [the defendant] had been convicted of an abduction related to a rape and evidence that he had been convicted for indecent liberties were pertinent to the question whether McCloud was likely to commit sexually violent acts in the future and, thus, were relevant.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Proffitt

3. “a congenital or acquired condition that affects a person's emotional or volitional capacity and renders the person so likely to commit sexually violent offenses that he constitutes a menace to the health and safety of others.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Shivaee v. Com.