United States v. Birbal’s Empirical Analysis
113 F.3d 342 · 1997
Citation profile
17 federal appellate · 10 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 43 later decisions — most recently July 2022 · most notably United States v. Desena (2002), Moore v. United States (1999)
17 federal appellate · 10 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Applies 18 U.S.C. § 1952 · 18 U.S.C. § 2232 · 21 U.S.C. § 841 (§ 401 of the Controlled Substances Act) · 21 U.S.C. § 846 (§ 406 of the Controlled Substances Act)
Relies on Miranda v. State of Arizona Vignera · Moran v. Burbine · Maine v. Moulton · Kuhlmann v. Wilson · United States v. Henry
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 43 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[A]n informant becomes a government agent for purposes of [Massiah ] only when the informant has been instructed by the police to get information about the particular defendant.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Gabaree’s July 1992 agreement with the government did not require him to elicit information from Birbal (or anyone else). There is no evidence that Gabar-ee was aware of Birbal’s existence before September 18. The Sixth Amendment rights of a talkative inmate are not violated when a jailmate acts in an entrepreneurial way to seek information of potential value, without having been deputized by the government to question that defendant. No doubt, Gabaree engaged Birbal in conversation in the hopes that he would get something valuable to take to the police, but Gabaree’s agreement did not render him a roving agent. See generally United States v. York, 933 F.2d 1343, 1357 (7th Cir.1991) (discussing incentives of prisoners to seek information to better their own lot).”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“any and all information in his possession relating directly or indirectly to any and all criminal activities or other matters of which he has knowledge”); Johnson, 338 F.3d at 922 (rejecting the idea that agency can be established”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Manns v. State
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.