United States v. Cervantes-Pacheco’s Empirical Analysis
826 F.2d 310 · 1987
Citation profile
85 federal appellate · 4 district · 29 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 147 later decisions — most recently March 2025 · most notably United States v. Tarantino (1988), United States v. Bermea (1994)
85 federal appellate · 4 district · 29 state decisions — followed in 19 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
Applies 21 U.S.C. § 841 (§ 401 of the Controlled Substances Act) · 21 U.S.C. § 963
Relies on Brady v. State of Maryland · United States v. Bagley · Napue v. People of the State of Illinois · Hoffa v. United States · Olmstead v. United States
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 147 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“No practice is more ingrained in our criminal justice system than the practice of the government calling a witness who is an accessory to the crime for which the defendant is charged and having that witness testify under a plea bargain that promises him a reduced sentence.”
11 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[a]s in the case of the witness who has been promised a reduced sentence, it is up to the jury to evaluate the credibility of the compensated witness.”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“we hold that the credibility of the compensated witness . . . is for a properly instructed jury to determine.”
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.