North Carolina v. Alford’s Empirical Analysis
1970
Citation profile
2,117 federal appellate · 318 district · 9,577 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 14,267 later decisions (54 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2026 · most notably Hill v. Lockhart (1985), Santobello v. New York (1971)
2,117 federal appellate · 318 district · 9,577 state decisions — followed in 49 states
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Appellate journey
reviewedAlford v. North Carolina (from Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Boykin v. Alabama · Brady v. United States · Jones v. United States · McCarthy v. United States
Cited together with Brady v. United States · Boykin v. Alabama · McCarthy v. United States · McMann v. Richardson · Strickland v. Washington
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 14,267 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“An individual accused of crime may voluntarily, knowingly, and understandingly consent to the imposition of a prison sentence even if he is unwilling or unable to admit his participation in the acts constituting the crime.”
217 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“whether the plea represents a voluntary and intelligent choice among the alternative courses of action open to the defendant.”
182 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Notwithstanding the acceptance of a plea of guilty, the court should not enter a judgment upon such plea without making such inquiry as shall satisfy it that there is a factual basis for the plea.”
28 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
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.