Commonwealth v. Evans’s Empirical Analysis
1969
Citation profile
70 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 74 later decisions (2 by the Supreme Court) — most recently April 2019 · most notably Parker v. North Carolina (1970), Commonwealth v. Zuber (1976)
70 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
Relies on 256 F. Supp. 244 - United States Ex Rel. Elksnis v. Gilligan · Commonwealth ex rel. Kerekes v. Maroney
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 74 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““If the trial judge concurs [in the plea bargain], but later decides that the final disposition should not include the charge or sentence concession contemplated by the plea agreement, he shall so advise the defendant and then call upon the defendant to either affirm or withdraw his pleas of guilty or nolo contendere.” 3”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[T]he awesome effect of a guilty plea and the sensitive nature of the bargaining process makes certain safeguards essential. ‘Our concept of due process must draw a distinct line between, on the one hand, advice from and “bargaining” between defense and prosecuting attorneys and, on the other hand, discussion by judges who are ultimately to determine the length of sentence to be imposed.’ The trial judge should not participate in plea discussions____[because] [f]irst, the defendant can receive the impression from the trial judge’s participation in the plea discussion that he would not receive a fair trial if he went to trial before the same judge. Second, if the judge takes part in the preplea discussions, he may not be able to judge objectively the voluntariness of the plea when it is entered. Finally, the defendant may feel that the risk of not going along with the disposition which is apparently desired by the judge is so great that he ought to plead guilty despite an alternative desire. For these reasons, we feel compelled to forbid any participation by the trial judge in the plea bargaining prior to the offering of a guilty plea.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“we feel compelled to forbid any participation by the trial judge in the plea bargaining prior to the offering of a guilty plea”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. State v. Warner
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.