United States v. Cejas’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

32 federal appellate · 2 district · 7 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 51 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Upon the merits the proposition of the government is that the doctrine of res judicata does not exist for criminal cases except in the modified form of the 5th Amendment ...; and the conclusion is drawn that a decision upon a plea in bar cannot prevent a second trial when the defendant never has been in jeopardy in the sense of being before a jury upon the facts of the offense charged. It seems that the mere statement of the position should be its own answer. It cannot be that the safeguards of the person, so often and so rightly mentioned with solemn reverence, are less than those that protect from a liability in debt. It cannot be that a judgment of acquittal on the ground of the statute of limitations is less a protection against a second trial than a judgment upon the ground of innocence, or that such a judgment is any more effective when entered after a verdict than if entered by the government’s consent before a jury is empaneled; or that it is conclusive if entered upon the general issue, but if upon a special plea of the statute, permits the defendant to be prosecuted again.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. State v. Williams

2. “[A] ruling on a motion to dismiss under [Federal Criminal] Rule 12 will have different effects depending upon the nature of the defense raised. The granting of a motion to dismiss based upon double jeopardy, which would [under old forms of pleading] have been raised by a “plea in bar,” would have the effect of putting an end to all further prosecution. It has ... been recognized that collateral estoppel could be raised as a pretrial defense to an indictment, which would bar further prosecution. Thus, the dismissal of an indictment on the ground that further prosecution is barred by double jeopardy can preclude trial on a reindictment for the same charge.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. State v. Williams

3. “Of course, the quashing of a bad indictment is no bar to a prosecution upon a good one, but a judgment for the defendant upon the ground that the prosecution is barred goes to his liability as a matter of substantive law, and one judgment that he is free as a matter of substantive law is as good as another. A plea of the statute of limitations is a plea to the merits, and however the issue was raised in the former case, after judgment upon it, it could not be reopened in a later prosecution.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. State v. Williams