30 Va. App. 626 - Peeples v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

14 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 14 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““[S]elf-defense may be either justifiable or excusable. If it is either, it entitles the [accused] to an acquittal.” In either case, he is deemed to be innocent and guiltless of any crime. Bailey v. Commonwealth, 200 Va. 92, 96 , 104 S.E.2d 28, 31 (1958) (citations omitted). Assessing whether a particular act was committed in self-defense is distinct from determining whether its commission was intentional. In making a plea of self-defense, an accused “implicitly admits the killing [or wounding] was intentional.” McGhee [v. Commonwealth], 219 Va. [560,] 562, 248 S.E.2d [808,] 810 [(1978)] (emphasis added). Instead, the issue in a plea of self-defense is whether the accused’s admittedly intentional act was either justifiable or excusable. See id.; cf. Barrett v. Commonwealth, 231 Va. 102, 106 , 341 S.E.2d 190,192 (1986) (stating that “[a] plea of self-defense and a claim of provoked heat of passion do not conflict with each other”).”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. 43 Va. App. 391 - Hughes v. Commonwealth

2. “[T]he common law, many years ago, fixed a stable and constant standard of mental competence as the criterion for the determination of criminal responsibility. A person whose mental state falls outside the borderline drawn by that standard is deemed legally insane. All persons inside that borderline are “presumed to be sane, and to possess a sufficient degree of reason to be responsible for [their] crimes.”... Unless an accused contends that he was beyond that borderline when he acted, his mental state is immaterial to the issue of specific intent. Accordingly, we hold that evidence of a criminal defendant’s mental state at the time of the offense is, in the absence of an insanity defense, irrelevant to the issue of guilt.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Desper v. Woodson

3. “An opinion that the defendant suffered a mental disability that rendered him vulnerable to misunderstanding a social situation is the type of gradation or classification of the defendant’s mental state too subtle and shifting to form the basis for excusing his use of deadly force. In this instance, the expert’s opinion evidence was not relevant to prove that the defendant acted to defend himself from a threat of imminent bodily harm, or that he was provoked or acted in the heat of passion. Though this is not to say that expert testimony is never admissible in support of the defenses of heat of passion or self-defense.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Desper v. Woodson