318 Pa. Super. 252 - Commonwealth v. Carter’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

10 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 10 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “... [I]n the “give-and-take” of plea bargaining, there is no such element of punishment or retaliation so long as the accused is free to accept or reject the prosecution’s offer. Plea bargaining flows from “the mutuality of advantage” to defendants and prosecutors, each with his own reasons for wanting to avoid trial. Brady v. United States, [ 397 U.S. 742, 752 , 90 S.Ct. 1463, 1471 , 25 L.Ed.2d 747 (1970) ]. Defendants advised by competent counsel and protected by other procedural safeguards are presumptively capable of intelligent choice in response to prosecutorial persuasion, and unlikely to be driven to false self-condemnation. [Id. at 758, 90 S.Ct. at 1474 ]. Indeed, acceptance of the basic legitimacy of plea bargaining necessarily implies rejection of any notion that a guilty plea is involuntary in a constitutional sense simply because it is the end result of the bargaining process. By hypothesis, the plea may have been induced by promises of a recommendation of a lenient sentence or a reduction of charges, and thus by fear of the possibility of a greater penalty upon conviction after a trial. See ABA Project on Standards for Criminal Justice, Pleas of Guilty § 3.1 (App.Draft 1968); Note, Plea Bargaining and the Transformation of the Criminal Process, 90 Harv.L.Rev. 564 (1977). Cf. [Brady, 397 U.S. at 751 , 90 S.Ct. at 1470 ]; North Carolina v. Alford, [ 400 U.S. 25 , 91 S.Ct. 160 , 27 L.Ed.2d 162 (1970)]. While confronting a defendant with the risk of more severe puni”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 444 Pa. Super. 652 - Commonwealth v. Smith

2. ““Presently, appellant seeks to withdraw his plea after the imposition of sentence. The standard for granting withdrawal at this stage of the proceedings is that of ‘manifest injustice.’ Commonwealth v. Starr, 450 Pa. 485 , 301 A.2d 592 (1973). ‘Manifest injustice’ occurs where the accused makes an involuntary plea. Id. Upon a finding that a plea was involuntary, the court should permit withdrawal in order to correct a ‘manifest injustice.’ The defendant is so entitled, it would appear, as a matter of right. Commonwealth v. Ammon, 275 Pa.Super. 324 , 418 A.2d 744 (1980). However, the determination of the existence of ‘manifest injustice’ is in the first instance for the trial court, which initially accepted the plea. Commonwealth v. Starr, supra; Pa.R.Crim.P. 320. Also, it needs to be remembered that the burden is on appellant to prove that his plea was not voluntary. Commonwealth v. Johnson, 273 Pa.Super. 488 , 417 A.2d 753 (1979).””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Middleton