United States v. Berger’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

28 federal appellate · 2 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 32 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““An act is done knowingly if it is done voluntarily and purposely and not because of mistake, accident, mere negligence or some other innocent reason. An act is done willfully if it is done knowingly and deliberately. Willful does not mean that the defendant in addition to knowing what he is doing must also suppose he is breaking the law. Ignorance of the law is no excuse. I reiterate, however, that in order to convict a defendant of conspiracy he must have knowledge of some of its purposes and he must act with the intent of accomplishing the objectives of the conspiracy.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. United States v. Gregg

2. “[Ajdduce some evidence that a government agent by initiating the illegal conduct himself induced the defendant to commit the offense. If you find that the defendant * * * has adduced such evidence then the government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the inducement was not the cause of the crime, that is, that the defendant * * * was ready and willing to commit the offense.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. United States v. Braver