United States v. Ely’s Empirical Analysis
719 F.2d 902 · 1983
Citation profile
45 federal appellate · 2 district · 1 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 59 later decisions — most recently December 2017 · most notably Roland Machinery Company v. Dresser Industries Inc (1984), United States v. Kerley (1988)
45 federal appellate · 2 district · 1 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
Applies 18 U.S.C. § 3006A (Criminal Justice Act) · 18 U.S.C. § 3150 (Bail Reform Act of 1984) · 21 U.S.C. § 841 (§ 401 of the Controlled Substances Act)
Relies on Gideon v. Wainwright · Solem v. Helm · Betts v. Brady · Dorszynski v. United States · United States v. Wiley
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 59 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“may not change or reduce a sentence imposed within the applicable statutory limits on the ground that the sentence was too severe unless the trial court relied on improper or unreliable information in exercising its discretion or failed to exercise any discretion at all in imposing the sentence.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Moreover, the circumstances of his arrest in 1982, disclosed in the presentence report, suggest that Ely has a propensity to violence. He was traveling in a car that had been wired by the FBI. By his own statement he was en route to rob a bank and was armed; and he was arrested after the FBI heard him say he would steal a car in the vicinity of the bank and shoot any police officer who tried to stop him. So besides having committed serious narcotics offenses, being a convicted robber, and having been a fugitive for three years, Ely made a threat, that in the circumstances cannot be dismissed as idle, to take human life. All these were pertinent considerations in sentencing, see 18 U.S.C. § 3577 , all were before the district judge in a presentence report the factual accuracy of which is not contested, ...”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Ely v. United States“The services of the criminal defense bar cannot be auctioned to the highest bidder among the indigent accused-by definition, indigents are not bidders. But these services must be allocated somehow; indigent defendants cannot be allowed to paralyze the system by all flocking to one lawyer.”
1 later decision 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.