Santobello v. New York’s Empirical Analysis
1971
Citation profile
3,488 federal appellate · 349 district · 4,354 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 10,455 later decisions (94 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2026 · most notably Faretta v. California (1975), Puckett v. United States (2009)
3,488 federal appellate · 349 district · 4,354 state decisions — followed in 50 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.
Relationships
Relies on Boykin v. Alabama · In the Matter of Samuel Winship · North Carolina v. Alford · Brady v. United States
Cited together with Brady v. United States · McCarthy v. United States · Boykin v. Alabama · Mabry v. Johnson · North Carolina v. Alford
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 10,455 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“when a plea rests in any significant degree on a promise or agreement of the prosecutor, so that it can be said to be part of the inducement or consideration, such promise must be fulfilled.”
509 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.”
20 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“'a court ought to accord a defendant's preference considerable, if not controlling, weight inasmuch as the fundamental rights flouted by a prosecutor's breach of a plea bargain are those of the defendant, not of the State.'”
15 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
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.