27 Va. App. 111 - Brown v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

26 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 27 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “It has long been held in Virginia that where an officer attempts an unlawful arrest, the officer is an aggressor which gives the arrestee the right to use self-defense to resist so long as the force used is reasonable. See [Foote v. Commonwealth, 11 Va.App. 61, 69 , 396 S.E.2d 851, 856 (1990)]; see also Annotation, Modern Status of Rules as to Right to Forcefully Resist Illegal Arrest, 44 A.L.R.3d 1078 (1972). “[T]he amount of force used [always] must be reasonable in relation to the harm threatened.” Diffendal v. Commonwealth, 8 Va.App. 417, 421 , 382 S.E.2d 24, 26 (1989). When the issue on appeal is whether there is sufficient evidence to support a criminal conviction, we view conflicting evidence in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth. However, when the issues are the lawfulness of an arrest and the reasonableness of force used to resist an unlawful arrest, the ultimate questions involve law and fact and are reviewed de novo on appeal. See Foote, 11 Va.App. at 65 , 396 S.E.2d at 853-54 ; see also McGee v. Commonwealth, 25 Va.App. 193, 197-98 , 487 S.E.2d 259, 261 (1997) (en banc) (citing Ornelas v. United States, 517 U.S. 690 , 116 S.Ct. 1657 , 134 L.Ed.2d 911 (1996)).”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 37 Va. App. 1 - Hill v. Commonwealth