29 Va. App. 548 - Ellis v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

54 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 54 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[t]he word [willful] often denotes an act which is intentional, or knowing, or voluntary, as distinguished from accidental. But when used in a criminal statute it generally means an act done with a bad purpose; without justifiable excuse; stubbornly, obstinately, perversely[.] The word is also employed to characterize a thing done without ground for believing it is lawful.”

   6 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 33 Va. App. 356 - Collado v. Commonwealth · Nicholas David Pelloni v. Commonwealth of Virginia

2. ““accompanied by acts of commission or omission of a wanton or willful nature, showing a reckless disregard or indifferent disregard of the rights of others, under circumstances reasonably calculated to produce injury, or which make it not improbable that injury will be occasioned, and the offender knows, or is charged with the knowledge of, the probable result of [her] acts.””

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 47 Va. App. 34 - Morris v. Commonwealth · 53 Va. App. 683 - Shanklin v. Commonwealth

3. “While appellant ... purposefully and intentionally left her apartment ..., the intent which is relevant to our determination of “bad purpose” does not relate simply to why she left the apartment. Rather, it relates to the degree to which she was aware of the danger when leaving her children unattended. Here, no evidence establishes that ... she acted with knowledge or consciousness that her children would be injured as a likely result of her departure to visit a neighbor for a short period of time in another residential building. [Further, the evidence] fails to show that appellant left the apartment knowing the burner was on and in conscious disregard of the likely ignition of a grease fire that would ultimately endanger the lives of her children.... ... [I]nattention and inadvertence have not been heretofore equated with actions taken willfully, thus making them subject to criminal penalty. Similarly, appellant’s inability to “see anything wrong with what she had done by going outside and leaving the children alone in the apartment,” while clearly misguided, is reflective of simple negligence, not criminal conduct.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 47 Va. App. 34 - Morris v. Commonwealth · 49 Va. App. 3 - Dorothy Jane Bean-Brewer v. Commonwealth