United States v. Ham’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

7 federal appellate ·

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

1. “Similar to the DEA Agent’s testimony in Swafford , Agent Lewis testified that persons involved in drug trafficking almost always have guns because “it’s an illegal business, and the only way they can protect this illegal business is through violence or the threat of violence.” Like Swafford , Defendant could not lawfully possess a handgun because he was a convicted felon. Also, as in Swafford , “the gun was discovered as the officers executed a search warrant looking for drugs, which they ultimately found.” The nexus between the offense and gun is even stronger than in Swaf-ford because the gun was found in closer proximity to the drugs, i.e., in the same room. We conclude that a rational trier of fact could have found beyond a reasonable doubt that Defendant possessed a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense.”

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

2. “Courts have overwhelmingly found police officers' expert testimony admissible where it will aid the jury's understanding of an area, such as drug dealing, not within the experience of the average juror.”

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