United States v. Plummer’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

24 federal appellate · 4 district ·

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

1. “look[ ] to the evidence as a whole, including reasonable inferences drawn from it, in the light most favorable to the verdict, to determine whether a rational trier of fact could have found the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Nadworny v. Fair · United States v. Cassiere

2. “Mere possession of a firearm is not enough. The Government must prove that firearm facilitated a drug trafficking crime. The defendant must have intended to have the firearm available for possible use during or immediately following a drug trafficking crime, or the firearm must have facilitated the transaction by lending courage to the defendant. The sole purpose for possession of the firearm need not be facilitation of drug trafficking so long as that was one of its possible and intended uses. All that is necessary is that the circumstances of the case show that the firearm facilitated or had a role in the crime such as emboldening the defendant.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Brache v. United States

3. “We do not weigh witness credibility, but resolve all credibility issues in favor of the verdict. The evidence may be entirely circumstantial and need not exclude every reasonable hypothesis of innocence; that is, the factfinder may decide among reasonable interpretations of the evidence.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. United States v. Cassiere