Lambert v. United States’s Empirical Analysis
1975
Citation profile
2 federal appellate ·
Relationships
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 2255 (Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996)
Relies on McMann v. Richardson · Wilbert Herring v. W. J. Estelle, Director, Texas Department of Corrections · Fitzgerald v. Estelle · United States ex rel. Maselli v. Reincke · Wellnitz v. Page
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 6 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The rationale behind the indeterminate sentence authorized by 18 U.S.C. § 4208 (a)(2) is ill-served by paroling procedures which set a prisoner off for years at a time between review hearings. . . . Since this court loses jurisdiction of the defendant it has sentenced after 120 days, Fed.R. Crim.P. 35, it has no power to follow up on him later to determine if the ends of justice and of effective rehabilitation would be as well or better served by keeping him under parole supervision, rather than in custody, for the remainder of the term. Section 4208(a)(2) was designed to help ameliorate that situation by instituting a degree of cooperation between the judiciary and the executive branch —by permitting the court to share responsibility for determining how long a period a prisoner should actually serve. Ideally, the court, by its use of the (a)(2) sentence, indicates to the parole board its view that [a] prisoner may be suitable for supervised release before the normal one-third point in his sentence. This in no way commits the board to release such a prisoner prior to the one-third point. Indeed, it does not even commit the board to release him before his mandatory release date. It should, however, commit the board to engage in closer and more frequent scrutiny of such a prisoner’s institutional record and rehabilitation potential.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.