47 Va. App. 498 - Campbell v. Campbell’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. “A “structural error” is a “defect affecting the framework within which the trial proceeds, rather than simply an error in the trial process itself.” Arizona v. Fulminante, 499 U.S. 279, 310 [ 111 S.Ct. 1246, 1265 , 113 L.Ed.2d 302 ] (1991); see Emmett v. Warden, 269 Va. 164 , 168, 609 S.E.2d 602 , 605 (2005). As such, it is the constitutional magnitude of the error that defies “harmless error review.” Neder v. United States, 527 U.S. 1, 8 [ 119 S.Ct. 1827, 1833 , 144 L.Ed.2d 35 ] (1999). Examples of errors which affect the framework of a trial include the denial of a public trial, the denial of counsel, the denial of an impartial trial judge, the systematic exclusion of members of the defendant’s race from the grand jury, the infringement upon a defendant’s right to represent himself, and the improper instruction to a jury as to reasonable doubt and the burden of proof. See Johnson v. United States, 520 U.S. 461, 466-67 [ 117 S.Ct. 1544, 1548-49 , 137 L.Ed.2d 718 ] (1997) (discussion of “limited class of cases” in which structural error found); Green v. Young, 264 Va. 604, 611-12 , 571 S.E.2d 135, 140 (2002) (holding an instruction stating the jury shall find the defendant guilty if the Commonwealth failed to prove each element beyond a reasonable doubt to be structural error).”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 56 Va. App. 695 - Montgomery v. Commonwealth