Fitzpatrick v. United States’s Empirical Analysis
410 F.2d 513 · 1969
Citation profile
53 federal appellate · 8 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 66 later decisions — most recently March 2015 · most notably United States v. Edwards (1974), United States v. Davis (1978)
53 federal appellate · 8 state decisions
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
Applies 18 U.S.C. § 2312
Relies on Glasser v. United States · Hernandez v. United States · Ivanhoe Irrigation District v. McCracken · Barfield v. United States · Montoya v. United States
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 66 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““Because unexplained possession of a recently stolen vehicle permits substantial inferences which may help prove two essential elements of the government’s case, the evidence relied on as proof of possession must be scrutinized with great care to prevent injustice. * * * A mere suspicion of possession will not support the inferences of transportation and guilty knowledge. * * *””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““But in a circumstantial evidence case the inferences to be drawn from the evidence must not only be consistent with guilt but inconsistent with every reasonable hypothesis of innocence. Montoya v. United States [5 Cir., 402 F.2d 847 ], supra.””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence““The possession of a stolen vehicle which if unexplained gives rise to the important inferences of transportation and guilty knowledge, means to have ‘management, care, dominion, authority and control, singly or jointly’ over the vehicle.””
1 later decision 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.