72 Md. App. 233 - Williams v. State’s Empirical Analysis
1987
Citation profile
29 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 29 later decisions — most recently November 2021 · most notably State v. Michael Letasky (2007), 234 N.J. Super. 84 - State v. Williams (1989)
29 state decisions — followed in 11 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
Relies on Logan v. State · Scott v. State · Coles v. State · Kaylor v. State · Hamilos v. Hamilos
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 29 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Probation ... permits a court, in its discretion, to suspend what would be the normal penalty for violation of the criminal law in favor of conditions which, if performed, tend to promote the rehabilitation of the criminal as well as the welfare of society-[T]he criminal defendant is given a second chance — an opportunity to show that by performing the conditions of probation he can function as a law-abiding and useful member of society.... If, however, the defendant fails to perform the conditions of probation he may forfeit the benefits of probation. In such a case ... the original sentence is the only true punishment; the probation revocation is merely the withdrawal of favorable treatment previously afforded the defendant.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passagee.g. A.W. v. Commonwealth · AW v. Com.“Probation is a conditional exemption from more severe punishment. It is an act of grace. . . . When a probationer violates a condition of his probation, the only appropriate sanction is a withdrawal of previously afforded favorable treatment rather than the imposition of an additional penalty. Punishment for contempt is an additional and separate penalty.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passagee.g. Finn v. State · AW v. Com.“[w]hen the [trial] court convicted the appellant of criminal contempt for violating that condition, and proceeded to sentence [him] for it, it did not merely withdraw the favorable treatment previously afforded [him]; it imposed a new and additional punishment.... A court cannot do indirectly what it cannot do directly.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage
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.