Otney v. United States’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

63 federal appellate · 2 district · 7 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 78 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““[T]he solid premise of the Supreme Court’s opinion in Escobedo lies in the affirmative denial to that accused of his constitutional right to consult counsel. Such denial had a direct causal bearing upon the voluntariness of the confession both in fact and in law, and, indeed presented a factual background that many would consider as bordering on legal outrage. But the case at bar presents a much different picture. Here, the appellant, after arrest and appearances before the United States Commissioner and after being fully advised of his right to counsel by both the Commissioner and the federal interrogator, simply told of his participation in the crime. Nothing was denied to him and, unless an accused’s mouth becomes legally closed after his right to counsel attaches and regardless of all else, a generality which this court has negatived, Latham v. Crouse, 10 Cir., 338 F.2d 658 , Otney’s confession was not tainted by a violation of his right under the Sixth Amendment.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Mah v. United States

2. ““The sufficiency of the evidence to overcome the legal presumption of sanity was not within the province of the jury or of concern to it. * * * Instead, the Court should have determined, as a matter of law [where there was sufficient evidence of mental illness] that the presumption of sanity, no longer existed and accordingly instructed the jury that the defendant’s mental competency to commit the offense was an essential element of the offense charged and the burden was upon the Government to prove the defendant’s criminal responsibility beyond a reasonable doubt.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. United States v. Bohle

3. “Under his plea of “not guilty” the defendant has raised the issue of his sanity at the time of the alleged offense. The law does not hold a person criminally accountable for his conduct while insane. Unless and until reasonable doubt of his sanity appears, the law presumes the defendant sane. But whenever, from all the evidence in the case, the jury has a reasonable doubt of his sanity, the defendant should be found insane. (Otney, supra, p. 698)”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. United States v. Arroyave