Ortiz v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

45 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 45 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “In my opinion, appellant’s argument is based upon several mistaken assumptions. First, he evidently believes that acceptance of his guilty plea by the trial judge was tantamount to acceptance of his plea bargain with the prosecutor. But this is surely wrong. Our law provides that “[p]rior to accepting a plea of guilty or a plea of nolo contendere, the court shall admonish the defendant of [some important consequences which may follow from his plea] and that “[n]o plea of guilty or nolo contendere shall be accepted by the court unless it appears that the defendant is mentally competent and the plea is free and voluntary.” [Tex. Code Crim. Proc. Ann. art. 26.13(a), (b) ]. Thus, acceptance by the court of a defendant’s guilty plea is legally inhibited only if the plea is not an intelligent act of the defendant’s competent free will. The trial judge need not also agree to ratify the terms of a private agreement between the parties before accepting a guilty plea. At most, he need only state whether he will ratify or reject the bargain.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. in Re Roy Dean Duffey