United States v. Halbert’s Empirical Analysis
640 F.2d 1000 · 1981
Citation profile
172 federal appellate · 3 district · 42 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 272 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2025 · most notably McNally v. United States (1987), United States v. Tresvant (1982)
172 federal appellate · 3 district · 42 state decisions — followed in 22 states
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. § 1001 (Comprehensive Thrift and Bank Fraud Prosecution and Taxpayer Recovery Act of 1990) · 18 U.S.C. § 1014 · 18 U.S.C. § 1341 (White-Collar Crime Penalty Enhancement Act of 2002) · 18 U.S.C. § 1342 · 18 U.S.C. § 1621 · 18 U.S.C. § 1623 · 18 U.S.C. § 922 (Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act) · 26 U.S.C. § 7206
Relies on Glasser v. United States · Faretta v. California · United States v. Socony-Vacuum Oil Co. · Pereira v. United States · Holloway v. Arkansas
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 272 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“As a principle of general acceptance, the guilty plea ... of a codefendant may not be offered by the government ... as substantive evidence of the guilt of those on trial.”
9 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[t]he most effective practice would be to instruct the jury when the evidence of the plea is admitted, and again in final instructions,”
9 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“'This and other circuits have consistently recognized that, under proper instruction, evidence of a guilty plea may be elicited by the prosecutor on direct examination so that the jury may assess the credibility of the witnesses....' Even where the government's use of a co-defendant's guilty plea is permissible, the trial court is obliged to deliver 'adequate cautionary instructions that make it clear to lay people that evidence of a witness' own guilty plea can be used only to assess credibility.'”
6 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.