People v. Wright’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

8 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 8 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “If parties to a plea agreement want to insulate the agreement from future changes in the law they should specify that the consequences of the plea will remain fixed despite amendments to the relevant law.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. People v. Barton · 245 Cal. Rptr. 3d 821 - People v. Stamps

2. “waiver that is nonspecific, e.g., 'I waive my appeal rights' or 'I waive my right to appeal any ruling in this case,' " is considered a general waiver. ( People v. Panizzon (1996) 13 Cal.4th 68 , 85, fn. 11, 51 Cal.Rptr.2d 851 , 913 P.2d 1061 .) "A broad or general waiver of appeal rights ordinarily includes error occurring before but not after the waiver because the defendant could not knowingly and intelligently waive the right to appeal any unforeseen or unknown future error. [Citation.] Thus, a waiver of appeal rights does not apply to ' "possible future error”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 245 Cal. Rptr. 3d 821 - People v. Stamps

3. “It follows, also as a general rule, that requiring the parties' compliance with changes in the law made retroactive to them does not violate the terms of the plea agreement, nor does the failure of a plea agreement to reference the possibility the law might change translate into an implied promise the defendant will be unaffected by a change in the statutory consequences attending his or her conviction. To that extent, then, the terms of the plea agreement can be affected by changes in the law.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 245 Cal. Rptr. 3d 821 - People v. Stamps