40 Va. App. 271 - Cairns v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis
2003
Citation profile
18
cited by 18 later decisions
2
states following
May 2016
most recently cited
16 state decisions
Relationships
Relies on Chapman v. State of California · Kotteakos v. United States · North Carolina v. Pearce · Davis v. Alaska · Pointer v. Texas
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.
“‘“[C]alling for evidence in one’s favor is central to the proper functioning of the criminal justice system. It is designed to ensure that the defendant in a criminal case will not be unduly shackled in his effort to develop his best defense.’ ” Clark v. Commonwealth, 31 Va.App. 96, 109 , 521 S.E.2d 313, 319 (1999) (quoting Massey v. Commonwealth, 230 Va. 436, 442 , 337 S.E.2d 754, 757 (1985)). Therefore, “no legislation, however salutary its purpose, can be so construed as to deprive a criminal defendant of his Sixth Amendment right to confront and cross-examine his accuser and to call witnesses in his defense.” Winfield, 225 Va. at 218 , 301 S.E.2d at 19 .”
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.