Morse 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 prior acts of violence by defendant in demanding sex from the victim were relevant in proving that the intercourse leading to the marital sexual assault charge occurred as a result of a threat of force
• upholding admission of other crimes evidence because “the prior relations of the couple showed the victim’s state of mind ‘as to why she did what she did’” (quoting Scott v. Commonwealth, 228 Va. 519, 527 (1984))
• “[Defendant’s prior sexual violence falls within the exception allowing evidence of prior bad acts to show the conduct and feeling of the accused toward the victim____”
• \[Defendant]'s prior sexual violence falls within the exception allowing evidence of prior bad acts to show the conduct and feeling of the accused toward the victim....\
• evidence of prior acts of sexual violence was admissible to show “the conduct and feeling of the accused toward the victim and the prior relations between the parties” in a prosecution for marital sexual assault
• wife’s submission to husband’s sexual demands in marital rape case could bear upon the defense of consent and, thus, “the prior relations of the couple showed the victim’s state of mind ‘as to why she did what she did’” (citing Scott v. Commonwealth, 228 Va. 519, 527 (1984))

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).