Cross v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

11 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 11 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Where the defendant enters a plea of guilty in anticipation of a lighter sentence recommended by the state, and where the court has forewarned the defendant that it was not necessarily bound by the state’s recommendation, it has been held that the court did not exert prejudicial surprise when it meted out a heavier sentence. Thus the mere fact that an accused, knowing his rights and the consequences of his act of pleading guilty, hoped or believed that he would receive a shorter sentence, a milder punishment, or some like favor by entering a plea of guilty, presents no ground for the withdrawal of the guilty plea. But . . . courts have also indicated that there is a countervailing legal principle — that the refusal to grant leave for a change of pleas from guilty to not guilty will be ruled an abuse of the trial court’s discretion when it appears that the plea of guilty was based on a misapprehension of the facts or of the law, or in consequence of a misrepresentation by his own attorney, or the state’s attorney, or someone else in authority. [Case note, 23 Ark. L. Rev. 281 (1969)].”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Wiser v. State