Rivera v. Quick’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

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 8 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[Petitioner’s] sentence is within the range prescribed by state law, and its length therefore does not present a question of constitutional dimensions .... [Petitioner’s] comparison of his sentence to that allegedly given to Abbie Hoffman does not establish a violation of his right to equal protection. There exists no authority for the proposition that all persons convicted of the same crime must receive the same sentence. Instead, a court is entitled to consider the defendant’s history, as well as the surrounding circumstances of the offense, in determining the length of a sentence: “Petitioner argues that his sentence was unduly harsh in light of the lighter sentence received by his co-defendant who declined to plead guilty. However, this is another area that is not amenable to collateral review in the absence of a clear abuse of discretion. The sentencing court had the benefit of a pre-sentence report as well as other background data on the defendants at the time of sentencing.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 111 F. Supp. 2d 271 - Thomas v. Greiner