United States v. Bent’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

22 federal appellate · 2 district ·

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 28 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““[T]he indictment in controversy gave to Bent and Jones all the information they needed and much more than they wanted. They, of course, knew what the indictment meant. * * * “Despite its defects, we think that count II of the indictment was sufficiently informative, when read in the light of the applicable statute to which the indictment referred, the subject matter of the other counts, and the indictment as a whole, to support the sentences imposed upon the defendants. * * * The second count should be construed to mean what the defendants, their counsel, and the trial court construed it to mean when Bent and Jones entered their pleas of not guilty, were tried, and were sentenced. There is, we think, no logic or justification in punishing poor, but non-prejudicial, criminal pleading by releasing a guilty defendant.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Bent v. United States

2. ““The defendants could have been under no misapprehension about the fact that the government was charging them with the robbery and with having jeopardized the life of the custodian by the use of a dangerous weapon in committing it. There is no suggestion made that the defendants were in any way actually misled or prejudiced by the defect in the second count.” 3”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Wheeler v. United States