33 Va. App. 96 - Clay 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. “1. The statement must refer to a presently existing state of mind. Although the mental state o[r] emotion must exist at the time of the declaration, it may relate to matters occurring in the past or in the future; 2. There must be no obvious indication of falsification or contrivance[.]”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 45 Va. App. 735 - Hodges v. Commonwealth · 56 Va. App. 606 - Andrews v. Creacey

2. “His name is David Martin. He was instructed to obtain a full statement from Mr. Clay if he was willing to give one. He indicated he would give one. He was read his standard Miranda rights. The statement is approximately four pages long in Martin’s handwriting. About thirty minutes later, Martin returned and asked Clay some more questions. During the thirty minute interim, Clay was in the presence of Martin, except maybe for a second or two. Clay’s demeanor throughout the entire process was somber and quiet. Those two words best described Clay to Martin. Clay was cooperative.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Clay v. Commonwealth

3. “logically, a deceased’s fear of an individual accused of murder is inconsistent with a claim that the events in question culminating in the death were the result of ‘pure chance.’ ” Clay, 531 S.E.2d at 628 . As pointed out in the dissent, however, the accident story was simply that the gun”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Capano v. State