31 Va. App. 521 - Akers v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis
2000
Citation profile
28 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 28 later decisions — most recently October 2020 · most notably State v. Knight (2003), Galloway v. State (2002)
28 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996)
Relies on United States v. Powell · Dunn v. United States · Harris v. Rivera · MacK v. State · United States v. Maybury
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 28 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““[C]onvictions based on inconsistent jury verdicts are tolerated because of the singular role of the jury in the criminal justice system.... [T]here is a ‘reluctance to interfere, with the results of unknown jury interplay,’ at least without proof of ‘actual irregularity.’ ... [inconsistencies may be the product of lenity, mistake, or a compromise to reach unanimity, and ... the continual correction of such matters would undermine the historic role of the jury as arbiter of questions put to it. In the present case, however, the inconsistent verdicts were" rendered by a judge, not by a jury. [The above rationale] does not justify inconsistent verdicts from the trial judge.” “ ‘There is no need to permit inconsistency ... so that the judge may reach unanimity with himself; on the contrary, he should be forbidden this easy method for resolving doubts.... We do not believe we would enhance respect for the law or for the courts by recognizing for a judge the same right to indulge in “vagaries” in the disposition of criminal charges that, for historic reasons, has been granted the jury.’ ””
1 later decision quote this exact passage“The ends of justice exception to Rule 5A:18 is narrow and is to be used sparingly. Michaels v. Commonwealth, 82 Va.App. 601 , 608, 529 S.E.2d 822, 826 (2000). Application of the ends of justice exception requires proof of an error that was “clear, substantial and material.” Brown v. Commonwealth, 8 Va.App. 126, 132 , 380 S.E.2d 8, 11 (1989). “The record ‘must affirmatively show that a miscarriage of justice has occurred, not that a miscarriage might have occurred.’ ” Akers v. Commonwealth, 31 Va.App. 521 , 528 n. 2, 525 S.E.2d 13 , 16 n. 2 (2000) (quoting Redman v. Commonwealth, 25 Va.App. 215, 221 , 487 S.E.2d 269, 272 (1997)).”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.