Freeman v. United States’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

42 federal appellate · 16 district · 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 191 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Justice Sotomayor’s concurrence charted a middle ground between the plurality and the dissent. She observed Rule 11(c)(1)(C) permits the parties to “agree that a specific sentencing range is the appropriate disposition of the case.” Id. at 2696-97 (Sotomayor, J., concurring). If the parties do so, she reasoned, the imposed sentence is “‘based on’ the agreed-upon sentencing range.” Id. Accordingly, when the Rule 11(c)(1)(C) plea is based on a Guideline sentencing range that is retroactively amended, the defendant is entitled to the amendment. Id. at 2697-99. But, when the plea deal does not “use” or “employ” a Guideline sentencing range, the defendant is not entitled to the benefit of the amendment. See id.”

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

2. “Rule 11(c)(1)(C) permits the defendant and the prosecutor to agree that a specific sentence is appropriate, but that agreement does not discharge the district court's independent obligation to exercise its discretion.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. U.S. v. Aragon

3. “If the district court ... concludes the [plea] agreement led to a more lenient sentence than would otherwise have been imposed, it can deny the [ § 3582(c)(2) ] motion....”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. United States v. Green