Smith v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

26 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 26 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “(a) Generally. In the circuit court a defendant having a right to trial by jury shall be tried by a jury unless the right is waived pursuant to section (b) of this Rule. If the waiver is accepted by the court, the State may not elect a trial by jury- (b) Procedure for acceptance of waiver. A defendant may waive the right to a trial by jury at any time before the commencement of trial. The court may not accept the waiver until it determines, after an examination of the defendant on the record in open court conducted by the court, the State’s Attorney, the attorney for the defendant, or any combination thereof, that the waiver is made knowingly and voluntarily.”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Boulden v. State · Abeokuto v. State

2. “`there has been an intentional relinquishment or abandonment of a known right or privilege.'”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Boulden v. State · Walker v. State

3. ““Inherent in the ‘plea bargaining’ process is the possibility of a misunderstanding on the part of the participants as to possible consequences of a guilty plea. The defendant is often told by his attorney that a ‘promise’ of a certain sentence has been made in exchange for his plea of guilty when, in fact, the ‘promise’ has come from one, such as the prosecutor, who is in no position to make promises concerning sentencing or has been made by the trial judge in terms of ‘probably’, ‘maybe’, or T am inclined toward’. These ‘promises’ are occasionally communicated to defendants as firm deals. When the defendant is induced to plead guilty on the basis of his misinterpretation of the ‘promise’, the plea may, in certain cases, be invalid because it was based on incomprehension or misinterpretation. * * * This scenario will sometimes end in a sentence which comports with the defendant’s expectations or in, what the defendant feels is, a ‘double-cross’, when the trial judge exercises his discretion and pronounces a sentence more severe than the prosecutor ‘promised’ or the judge supposedly had committed himself to. When this occurs, the defendant may (and we emphasize ‘may’) have a claim of an invalid plea based on incomprehension, misinterpretation, or inducement. The defendant, however, must have reasonable grounds for assuming that the bargain would be consummated. He cannot, in the ordinary case, rely on the promise of the prosecutor who has no authority to make sentencing promi”

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