56 Va. App. 391 - Turner v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

10 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 10 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[Commonwealth:] Let me read you a few sentences of this affidavit you signed. [Turner] did not encourage me in any way and, in fact, I remember one instance while I was choking [Evans], [Turner] tried to pull my hands away. [Evans] became unconscious and I believed she was dead. I fell back in the seat, and she woke up. I then choked her again until blood came out of her nose and am certain she was dead at that time. . . . That statement reflects, does it not, that she was not killed instantly or rendered helpless instantly but, in fact, revived and you had to choke her a second time, correct? [Brown:] Yes. . . . [Commonwealth:] [W]as there a period where she was seemingly unconscious or worse and then revived and then you had to assault her a second time? Is that, in fact, the case? [Brown:] Yes. Yes.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. Turner v. Com.

2. “1. The Court of Appeals erred in refusing to grant the writ of actual innocence and vacate Turner's convictions for murder and abduction with intent to defile. 2. The Court of Appeals erred in ruling that "a rational fact finder could have found that Turner abducted Evans by deception—meaning no finding of force or restraint would have been required—and that the abduction ended with Evans' murder." 3. The Court of Appeals erred in ruling that "it cannot be said that Brown's credible recantation provides this Court with clear and convincing evidence that no rational fact finder could have found that Turner used deception to abduct Evans with the intent to have sexual intercourse with her against her will. Therefore, Turner was properly convicted of abduction with intent to defile and murder."”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Turner v. Com.

3. “the petitioner has not met his burden ... because ... relief [on a petition for a writ of actual innocence is available] only to those individuals who can establish that they did not, as a matter of fact, commit the crime for which they were convicted and not to those who merely produce evidence contrary to the evidence presented at their criminal trial”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 188 Conn. App. 70 - McClain v. Commissioner of Correction