Gray v. United States’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

22 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 22 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Although a sentence of five to fifteen months for an offense with a five year mandatory minimum is superficially unambiguous, its apparent clarity is deceptive. The court is not required to blind its eyes to clear evidence of its own intention. Sentencing is not a game.... Obviously, as the judge subsequently revealed, he did not intend to impose an illegal sentence_ The possibility — in- deed, the virtual certainty — that the illegal sentence resulted from a slip of the tongue was readily apparent. The sentence from the bench was, therefore, at least ambiguous, for any reasonable person would have concluded that the judge did not mean to say what he said.”

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

2. “[t]o fire a weapon at such range was bound to place in peril the lives of [the] young potential victims,”

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

3. “Intent can rarely be proved directly, and must often be discerned from the surrounding circumstances.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Mario Giovani Valendzuela-Castillo v. United States