56 Va. App. 725 - Chapman v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis
2010
Citation profile
15
cited by 15 later decisions
2
states following
December 2019
most recently cited
15 state decisions
Relationships
Applies 18 U.S.C. § 2252
Relies on United States v. Bayer · Huddleston v. United States · Diamond v. Chakrabarty · Stockton v. Commonwealth · 6 Va. App. 485 - Darnell v. Commonwealth
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 15 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Moreover, “[o]nly when a ‘penal statute is unclear’ do courts apply the rule of lenity and strictly construe the statute in the criminal defendant’s favor.” De’Armond v. Commonwealth, 51 Va.App. 26, 34 , 654 S.E.2d 317, 321 (2007) (quoting Waldrop v. Commonwealth, 255 Va. 210, 214 , 495 S.E.2d 822, 825 (1998)). “[T]he rule of lenity serves only to resolve genuine, plausible ambiguities and ‘does not abrogate the well recognized canon that a statute ... should be read and applied so as to accord with the purpose intended and attain the objects desired if that may be accomplished without doing harm to its language.’ ” Id. at 35, 624 S.E.2d at 321 (quoting Cartwright v. Commonwealth, 223 Va. 368, 372 , 288 S.E.2d 491, 493 (1982)).”
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.