United States v. LaPointe’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 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 19 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The government’s right to charge in the conjunctive and prove in the disjunctive reflects the necessary discrepancies between indictments and jury instructions. Indictments must be phrased in the conjunctive so that society can be confident that the grand jury has found probable cause for all of the alternative theories that go forward. Juries, on the other hand, may convict a defendant on any theory contained in the indictment. As a result, judges read jury instructions in the disjunctive.”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. United States v. Howard · United States v. Pritchett

2. “(1) a proper request is made; (2) the elements of the lesser offense are identical to part of the elements of the greater offense; (3) the evidence would support a conviction on the lesser offense; and (4) the proof on the element or elements differentiating the two crimes is sufficiently disputed so that a jury could consistently acquit on the greater offense and convict on the lesser.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. United States v. Dwayne Davis, Jr.

3. “a vertical 'conspiracy to possess drugs with intent to distribute' can easily be said to be a 'conspiracy to possess drugs' with one added element, namely, that the parties also had a shared aim that the possessed drugs then be distributed.”

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