44 Va. App. 741 - Thomas v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

125 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 125 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[n]ot just any objection will do. It must be both specific and timely —so that the trial judge would know the particular point being made in time to do something about it.”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 51 Va. App. 224 - WITEINER v. Com. · 46 Va. App. 724 - Singson v. Commonwealth

2. “'Only when reasonable jurists could not differ can we say an abuse of discretion has occurred.'”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 68 Va. App. 602 - Donald Dravell Robinson v. Commonwealth of Virginia · Commonwealth v. Swann (ORDER)

3. “In a sense, all “evidence tending to prove guilt is prejudicial”—at least from the point of view of the person standing trial. Virginia law, however, intervenes only when the alleged prejudice tends to inflame irrational emotions or leads to illegitimate inferences. And even then, it becomes a matter of degree____ We generally defer to trial judges on this subject because they, unlike us, participate first person in the evidentiary process and acquire competencies on the subject that we can rarely duplicate merely by reading briefs and transcripts.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 52 Va. App. 423 - Caison v. Commonwealth