Billips v. Com.’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

18 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 18 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““[i]f, 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.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 58 Va. App. 655 - Perry v. Commonwealth

2. “Advancements in the sciences continually out-pace the education of laymen, a category that includes judges, jurors and lawyers. . . . Consequently, there is a risk that those essential components of the judicial system may gravitate toward uncritical acceptance of any pronouncement that appears to be `scientific,'. . . .”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Crocker v. Roethling

3. “When scientific evidence is offered, the court must make a threshold finding of fact with respect to the reliability of the scientific method offered, unless it is of a kind so familiar and accepted as to require no foundation to establish the fundamental reliability of the system, such as fingerprint analysis.”

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