Gray v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 federal appellate · 27 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 30 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Ordinarily, the fact that a defendant is faced with the choice of going to trial or pleading guilty in open court without the benefit of a plea bargain does not entitle him to relief based upon the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. The State is never under any legal obligation to plea bargain with any defendant; for there is no constitutional right to plea bargaining. Weatherford v. Bursey, 429 U.S. 545 , 97 S.Ct. 837 , 51 L.Ed.2d 30 (1977). Provided the prosecutor has probable cause to believe that the accused committed an offense, the decision of whether to prosecute and of what charge to bring rests generally within the prosecutor’s discretion.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. State Ex Rel. Stout v. Craytor · 1999 OK CR 43 - Woodward v. Morrissey

2. “the conscious exercise of some selectivity in enforcement is not in itself a federal constitutional violation so long as the selection was [not] deliberately based upon an unjustifiable standard such as race, religion or other arbitrary classification.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Childress v. State · Romano v. State

3. “The recognition of plea bargaining as an essential component of the administration of justice, however, does not elevate it to a constitutional right. That is not to say, that a prosecutor can accept or refuse plea negotiations in a way that discriminates against defendants on account of their race, religion, economic status or other arbitrary classification.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Moody v. State