United States v. Johnson’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

5 district ·

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

1. “Despite these representations of a knowing and voluntary plea in the plea agreement and at the plea colloquy, Mr. Johnson asserts that his plea was not knowing and voluntary because he did not know that he was giving up a claim that-the government failed to disclose impeachment evidence. The Supreme Court, however, foreclosed this exact argument in United States v. Ruiz, by holding that the government has no constitutional obligation to disclose impeachment information before a defendant enters into a plea agreement. Ruiz emphasized that “impeachment information is special in relation to the fairness of a trial, not in respect to whether a plea is voluntary.” Rather, “a waiver [is] knowing, intelligent, and sufficiently aware if the defendant fully understands the nature of the right and how it would likely apply in general in the circumstances-even though the defendant may not know the specific detailed consequences of invoking it.” Mr. Johnson understood that he was giving up his right to cross examine government witnesses. He therefore generally knew what he was giving up, and his appeal waiver was not unknowing or involuntary.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. United States v. Rivas · 871 F. Supp. 2d 1125 - United States v. Harmon