Beverly v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 district · 38 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 42 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “By the Constitution of Maryland, Article 5, Section 9, the State’s Attorney shall perform such duties as may [by] law be prescribed. By section 33 of Article 10 of the Code [(current version at § 34 of Article 10)], that officer is required to ‘prosecute and defend, on the part of the State, all cases in which the State may be interested.’ In such prosecutions of persons accused of crime, he must exercise a sound discretion to distinguish between the guilty and the innocent. He must be trusted with broad official discretion to institute and prosecute criminal causes, subject generally to judicial control. The office is one not purely ministerial, but involves the exercise of learning and discretion. As a general rule, whether the State’s Attorney does or does not institute a particular prosecution is a matter which rests in his discretion.”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. (2003) · Pringle v. State

2. “Unlike in the brief interchange in Watkins , the above discussion appears in the transcript after eleven pages of discussion of the same issue. Moreover, following that discussion, Mr. Guth, Beverly’s attorney, continued, “I just think that this defendant coming into this court is ... not being given the opportunities that other individuals are given in other courts just by way of allowing him to not have the ten years without parole invoked upon them if they did wish to enter into a plea agreement. So my argument is that ... he is not being given the benefit of what other individuals are given in other courts.” The court then responded: “Okay. I don’t know anything about that. I can’t tell you the last time I’ve been in anybody else’s court.... I don’t know what other people are doing. All I know is that’s the way I read the law. If it’s dead wrong, just show me how I’m wrong. Otherwise, this is my decision. I mean, as far as I can see this is what the • Legislature says you’ve got to get. It’s like use of a handgun. You know, I can give you all the sentences I want to give, but five of it has to be without parole. I can give you only five, but it’s without parole because that’s what I understand is a mandatory sentence.””

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

3. “While defense counsel is expected to argue vigorously for his client, the client also has an interest in defense counsel showing polite deference to the judge who will hear the trial. Here, it appears that once Beverly’s attorney realized that the court was not going to change its mind, defense counsel, having vigorously argued the matter, politely continued on with the matter of the day. To deem Beverly’s behavior acquiescence would be to ignore the reality of what goes on at the trial level.”

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