Williams v. Commonwealth

How courts have described this case

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

• stating that a defendant may be found liable of malicious or unlawful wounding for a blow with the bare fist even though the first is not regarded as a dangerous weapon
• presuming an intent to kill where the accused used only his fists based on circumstances such as the lack of provocation and severity of the injuries inflicted
• “Malice inheres in the intentional doing of a wrongful act without legal justification or excuse.” (emphasis added)
• defendant struck the victim “four or five times with his fists,” causing significant injuries that required extensive medical treatment
• even if not reflected in the record, a trial court has the ability to observe an attacker and his victim’s relative sizes when considering intent

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).

Cited by

9 cases in this archive cite this case.

• Johnson v. Commonwealth
  Court of Appeals of Virginia· 2008-12-16· cited 80×
• Doss v. Commonwealth
  Court of Appeals of Virginia· 1996-12-31· cited 44×
• James Scott Witherow, II v. Commonwealth of Virginia
  Court of Appeals of Virginia· 2015-12-01· cited 38×
• Scott Edward Knight v. Commonwealth of Virginia
  Court of Appeals of Virginia· 2012-11-13· cited 21×
• Ferguson v. Commonwealth
  Court of Appeals of Virginia· 2007-09-11· cited 7×
• United States v. Cuong Gia Le
  E.D. Virginia· 2004-04-30· cited 6×
• Bolton v. Commonwealth
  Court of Appeals of Virginia· 1994-12-13· cited 1×
• James D. Shaw, a/k/a Roscoe James Shaw v. Commonwealth of Virginia
  Court of Appeals of Virginia· 2024-01-23
• Lamari Najek House v. Commonwealth of Virginia
  Court of Appeals of Virginia· 2026-05-19

Cites

6 cases in this archive are cited by this case.

• Josephs v. Commonwealth
  Court of Appeals of Virginia· 1990-03-27· cited 195×
• Dawkins v. Commonwealth
  Supreme Court of Virginia· 1947-03-03· cited 132×
• Fletcher v. Commonwealth
  Supreme Court of Virginia· 1969-03-10· cited 50×
• Bryant v. Commonwealth
  Supreme Court of Virginia· 1949-04-25· cited 47×
• Roark v. Commonwealth
  Supreme Court of Virginia· 1944-01-24· cited 44×
• Shackelford v. Commonwealth
  Supreme Court of Virginia· 1945-01-15· cited 31×