41 Va. App. 448 - Carter v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

4 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 4 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““An assault is an attempt or offer, with force and violence, to do some bodily hurt to another, whether from wantonness or malice, by means calculated to produce the end if carried into execution; as by striking at him with a stick or other weapon, or without a weapon, though he be not struck, or even by raising up the arm or a cane in a menacing manner, by throwing a bottle of glass with an intent to strike, by levelling a gun at another within a distance from which, supposing it to be loaded, the contents might injure, or any similar act accompanied with circumstances denoting an intention coupled with a present ability, of using actual violence against the person of another. But no words whatever, be they ever so provoking, can amount to an assault; * * *”. (Italics supplied).”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. 42 Va. App. 681 - Carter v. Commonwealth

2. “[W]hen I first got to the vehicle and I initiated the conversation and was looking around, I noticed that the passenger[, Carter,] had his right hand down by his right leg. As I spoke with the driver, it was a sudden movement. [Carter’s] arm came up. It arced up and across his body, like this____ He said, “Pow.” And that was — I believed it to be a firearm. I believed he had a weapon and was going to shoot me at that point, until he said, “Pow,” and then I realized that it was only his finger .... The first thing I thought was that I was going to get shot. I — it’s a terrifying experience, and if I could have gotten my weapon, I would have shot him. But it’s — it happens ... [in] a split second.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 42 Va. App. 681 - Carter v. Commonwealth

3. “means calculated to produce the end if carried into execution” must be coupled with the requisite intent. . 3 William Blackstone, Commentaries , describes”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 42 Va. App. 681 - Carter v. Commonwealth