United States v. Smith’s Empirical Analysis
680 F.2d 255 · 1982
Citation profile
139 federal appellate · 17 district · 10 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 174 later decisions — most recently May 2021 · most notably United States v. Ortiz (1992), United States v. DeLuna (1985)
139 federal appellate · 17 district · 10 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
Relies on Glasser v. United States · Wong Sun v. United States · Pinkerton v. United States · United States v. Harriss · United States v. National Dairy Products Corp.
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 174 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[I]f the evidence can be construed in various reasonable alternatives, the jury is entitled to freely choose from among them.”
10 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Nationality supported] the jury’s finding. The jury could without undue strain conclude that it was simply incredible that with only four persons on board a relatively small vessel, on its way to “nowhere,” with an open cargo hold, surrounded by a sea of floating marihuana bales which some of the crew had been seen dumping, that all four were not participants in this criminal venture. It is entirely reasonable for the jury to conclude that conspirators, engaged in conduct which by its nature is kept secret from outsiders, would not allow the presence of innocent bystanders. Neither juries nor judges are required to divorce themselves of common sense, where, as here, the .appellant’s portrayal of himself as an innocent bystander is inherently unbelievable.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Neither juries nor judges are required to divorce themselves of common sense, but rather should apply to facts which they find proven such reasonable inferences as are justified in the light of their experience as to the natural inclinations of human beings.”
3 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.