State v. Mendez’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

6 state decisions

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

1. ““The final question raised by the defendant concerns the validity of the prior misdemeanor conviction which, when established, raises the petty theft conviction from a misdemeanor to a felony. Defendant asserts that under the provisions of Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 , 83 S.Ct. 792 , 9 L.Ed.2d 799 (1964), since the defendant was not represented by counsel at the time she was convicted of the prior offense of petty theft, that prior conviction may not be used in the instant case to raise the crime from a misdemeanor to a felony. Defendant points out the case of United States ex rel. Durocher v. LaVallee, 2 Cir., 330 F.2d 303 , cert. denied, 377 U.S. 998 , 84 S.Ct. 1921 , 12 L.Ed.2d 1048 (1964), as support for this position. “In that case, the court was concerned with a direct attack by habeas corpus upon the validity of the prior felony convictions allegedly made contrary to the rule set down in Gideon v. Wainwright. We believe and therefore hold that the rule in Gideon v. Wainwright does not apply hereto what amounts to a collateral attack upon a prior misdemeanor conviction. There was nothing before the court to indicate that defendant’s prior conviction had been set aside or invalidated by appeal or otherwise. The prior conviction must be considered valid, until successfully attacked through recognized judicial procedure.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 3 Ariz. App. 114 - State v. Salazar