State v. Wills’s Empirical Analysis
1988
Citation profile
73 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 73 later decisions — most recently February 2018 · most notably State v. Patton (2008), Easterwood v. State (2002)
73 state decisions — followed in 13 states
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 Santobello v. New York · Mabry v. Johnson · Mabry v. Johnson · United States v. Arnett · United States v. Ewing
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 73 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The agreement contains neither an express provision that the State’s obligations to make such recommendations includes post-sentence proceedings nor an express provision that the State’s obligations are limited solely to the original sentencing hearing. The State obviously controls the promise it makes to the defendant. The State for all practical purposes controls the plea agreement process from negotiations to drafting the final agreement that is signed by the defendant. If the State wants to limit its promises, it can do so by clearly setting out these limitations in the plea agreement. There can then be no question as to what the parties agree to and that the defendant’s waiver of his constitutional right to jury trial is voluntary and knowing. Absent such a limitation, the defendant would reasonably expect the State to be bound by its promise at all hearings which affect the determination of his sentence.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“in the expectation that the benefits of [the State's] promise would be available throughout the proceedings relevant to the determination of his sentence. The Government was obligated to fulfill its commitment at least until the question of Ewing's sentence was finally resolved by the sentencing judge.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“A plea agreement reasonably susceptible to different interpretations is ambiguous. The plea agreement in the instant case is reasonably susceptible to different interpretation and is therefore ambiguous. Where a statute is ambiguous, we require that it be strictly construed in favor of the accused. State v. Magness, 240 Kan. 719, 721 , 732 P.2d 747 (1987). We find no compelling reason to adopt a different rule in interpreting ambiguous plea agreements.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
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.