Byers v. Commonwealth

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• holding that a necessity jury instruction was not warranted where the defendant carried a firearm for self-protection due to a “generalized fear” of potential harm from a man who previously shot him and threatened to return to “finish the job”
• affirming a conviction under Code § 18.2-308.2 where the defendant had “knowledge of the firearm and its location and . . . had easy access to it”
• affirming the defendant’s conviction for being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm when he had knowledge of the firearm and its location and had access to it
• finding no imminent danger requiring possession of a firearm by a convicted felon where Byers only had a \generalized fear\ of bodily harm after alleged threats to \finish the job\ of killing Byers had been made
• applying this standard to an unlawful possession of a firearm conviction
• affirming denial of motion to withdraw guilty plea where defendant was shot three weeks prior and threats were made to “finish the job,” but there was no evidence of imminent threat to defendant at time he possessed the firearm

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).

Cited by

9 cases in this archive cite this case.

• Hunter v. Commonwealth
  Court of Appeals of Virginia· 2010-03-30· cited 28×
• Coleman v. Commonwealth
  Court of Appeals of Virginia· 2008-02-26· cited 26×
• Bragg v. Commonwealth
  Court of Appeals of Virginia· 2004-03-09· cited 18×
• Johnson v. Commonwealth
  Court of Appeals of Virginia· 2003-05-20· cited 14×
• Toliver v. Commonwealth
  Court of Appeals of Virginia· 2002-04-02· cited 10×
• Parrish v. Commonwealth
  Court of Appeals of Virginia· 2002-08-13· cited 8×
• Waller v. Commonwealth
  Court of Appeals of Virginia· 2008-09-02· cited 5×
• Small v. Commonwealth
  Supreme Court of Virginia· 2016-07-14
• Shaquawn Demonte Warren v. Commonwealth of Virginia
  Court of Appeals of Virginia· 2023-03-07

Cites

23 cases in this archive are cited by this case; the 20 most cited are listed.

• Higginbotham v. Commonwealth
  Supreme Court of Virginia· 1975-10-10· cited 746×
• Long v. Commonwealth
  Court of Appeals of Virginia· 1989-05-02· cited 329×
• United States v. Arthur Ronald Crittendon A/K/A Jabbar Muwakkil Ragib
  Fourth Circuit· 1989-08-29· cited 237×
• Drew v. Commonwealth
  Supreme Court of Virginia· 1986-01-17· cited 235×
• Lea v. Commonwealth
  Court of Appeals of Virginia· 1993-04-27· cited 228×
• Powers v. Commonwealth
  Supreme Court of Virginia· 1984-06-15· cited 221×
• Josephs v. Commonwealth
  Court of Appeals of Virginia· 1990-03-27· cited 195×
• United States v. Charles Odell Perrin
  Fourth Circuit· 1995-01-31· cited 140×
• McGhee v. Commonwealth
  Supreme Court of Virginia· 1978-11-22· cited 137×
• Brown v. Commonwealth
  Court of Appeals of Virginia· 1992-09-01· cited 130×
• United States v. Edgar Cherry Gant
  Fifth Circuit· 1982-11-09· cited 113×
• Diffendal v. Commonwealth
  Court of Appeals of Virginia· 1989-07-18· cited 91×
• United States v. Larry Harper
  Fifth Circuit· 1986-10-09· cited 76×
• Morse v. Commonwealth
  Court of Appeals of Virginia· 1994-02-01· cited 57×
• Painter v. Commonwealth
  Supreme Court of Virginia· 1969-12-01· cited 54×
• Hancock v. Commonwealth
  Court of Appeals of Virginia· 1995-12-29· cited 45×
• Banner v. Commonwealth
  Supreme Court of Virginia· 1963-12-02· cited 40×
• Humphrey v. Commonwealth
  Court of Appeals of Virginia· 2001-10-23· cited 36×
• United States v. Steven Holt
  Fourth Circuit· 1996-03-15· cited 34×
• Delacruz v. Commonwealth
  Court of Appeals of Virginia· 1990-11-20· cited 33×