James Edward Williams v. Commonwealth of Virginia

How courts have described this case

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

• holding that defendant was not reasonably provoked where he was told several days earlier that his friend had been murdered
• holding that defendant’s testimony that he deliberately aimed gun with purpose of scaring victim reflects that his act of shooting was done “with a sedate, deliberate mind, and formed design,” rather than “on impulse without conscious reflection”
• quoting Gaines v. Commonwealth, 3 9 Va.App. 562, 568, 574 S.E.2d 775, 778 (2003) (en bane
• “more than a scintilla of evidence must be present to support an instruction” (quoting Eaton, 240 Va. at 255, 397 S.E.2d at 397)
• “Although a defendant ‘is entitled to an instruction upon his theory of the case,’ this rule can be invoked ‘[o]nly when such instruction is supported by some appreciable evidence.’” (quoting Harris v. Commonwealth, 134 Va. 688, 695 (1922))
• “Although a defendant ‘is entitled to an instruction upon his theory of the case,’ this rule can be invoked ‘[o]nly when such instruction is supported by some appreciable evidence.’” (alteration in original) (quoting Harris v. Commonwealth, 134 Va. 688, 695 (1922))

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).