United States v. Littrell’s Empirical Analysis
574 F.2d 828 · 1978
Citation profile
116 federal appellate · 5 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 138 later decisions — most recently September 2020 · most notably United States v. Vera (1983), United States v. Hartley (1982)
116 federal appellate · 5 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. § 3500 · 21 U.S.C. § 812 (§ 202 of the Controlled Substances Act) · 21 U.S.C. § 841 (§ 401 of the Controlled Substances Act) · 21 U.S.C. § 843 (§ 403 of the Controlled Substances Act) · 21 U.S.C. § 846 (§ 406 of the Controlled Substances Act)
Relies on Glasser v. United States · United States v. Miller · Direct Sales Co. v. United States · Ingram v. United States · Union Carbide Corp. v. National Labor Relations Board
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 138 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“'Obviously, appellant's presence was highly suspicious, but this is not a substitute for evidence sufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt. Although it is certainly possible — maybe even probable — that [the appellant] was involved in the conspiracy, such speculation does not constitute proof beyond a reasonable doubt, and juries”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[I]t might be an asset for . . . a courier to be uninformed about the nature of his delivery, since he would have no reason to be nervous or apprehensive about a task he believed to be perfectly legitimate.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“the jury could reasonably, logically, and legally infer”
2 later decisions 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.