Atkins v. Com.’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

4 federal appellate · 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 23 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “If, when all is said and done, the conviction is sure that the error did not influence the jury, or had but slight effect, the verdict and the judgment should stand.... But if one cannot say, with fair assurance, after pondering all that happened without stripping the erroneous action from the whole, that the judgment was not substantially swayed by the error, it is impossible to conclude that substantial rights were not affected.... If so, or if one is left in grave doubt, the conviction cannot stand. [Clay v. Commonwealth, 262 Va. 253, 260 , 546 S.E.2d 728, 731-32 (2001) ] (quoting Kotteakos v. United States, 328 U.S. 750, 764-65 , 66 S.Ct. 1239 , 90 L.Ed. 1557 (1946)).”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 50 Va. App. 437 - Jones v. Commonwealth

2. “(i) significantly subaverage intellectual functioning as demonstrated by performance on a standardized measure of intellectual functioning administered in conformity with accepted professional practice, that is at least two standard deviations below the mean and (ii) significant limitations in adaptive behavior as expressed in conceptual, social and practical adaptive skills.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Winston v. Kelly

3. “[T]he judgment is reversed and annulled, the verdict of the jury is set aside, and the case is remanded to the said [C]ircuit [C]ourt for a new proceeding . . . to determine whether [Atkins] is mentally retarded.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. In Re Com.