State v. Thomas’s Empirical Analysis
1952
Citation profile
48 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 48 later decisions — most recently April 1990 · most notably Fox v. Scheidt (1954), State v. Cooper (1953)
48 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
Relies on McGill v. Town of Lumberton · State v. . Miller · Culbreth v. Britt Corp. · State v. Stansbury · State v. Smith
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 48 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“"Moreover, it is apparent from the record that all through the proceeding there is confusion as to the effect of a plea of nolo contendere in the case in which it was entered, and its consequences outside the particular case. The text writers and annotators, interpreting decisions of the courts of the land, say (1) that `all the decisions are in agreement that the plea of nolo contendere cannot be entered by a defendant as a matter of right, but is pleadable only by leave of the court,' that `its acceptance by the court is entirely a matter of grace'. Ann. 152 A.L.R. 253 at page 267; citing among other cases State v. Burnett, 174 N.C. 796 , 93 S.E. 473 , L.R.A. 1918A, 955 ; State v. Parker, 220 N.C. 416 , 17 S.E.2d 475 ; (2) that in all decisions in point the legal effect of the plea of nolo contendere, after it has been offered by the defendant and accepted by the court, in respect to the case in which it is interposed, is that it becomes an implied confession of guilt, and for the purposes of the case only, equivalent to a plea of guilty. * * * * * * * * * "In State v. Burnett, supra, it is said: `A plea of nolo contendere * * is equivalent to a plea of guilty in so far as it gives the court the power to punish. * * * The only advantage in a plea of nolo contendere gained by the defendant is that it gives him the advantage of not being estopped to deny his guilt in civil action based upon the same facts. Upon a plea of guilty, entered of record, the defendant would be est”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“The mere introduction of a certified copy of an indictment, and judgment thereon, based upon a plea of nolo contendere, is not sufficient to deprive an attorney of his license”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Winesett v. Scheidt
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.