King v. United States’s Empirical Analysis
98 F.2d 291 · 1938
Citation profile
134 federal appellate · 3 district · 55 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 226 later decisions (5 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2014 · most notably North Carolina v. Pearce (1969), Bozza v. United States (1947)
134 federal appellate · 3 district · 55 state decisions — followed in 20 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 18 U.S.C. § 710
Relies on Ball v. United States · Ex parte Lange · United States v. Benz · In re Bonner · Stroud 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 226 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The Government’s brief suggests, in the vein of The Mikado, that because the first sentence was void appellant ‘has served no sentence but has merely spent time in the penitentiary;’ that since he should not have been imprisoned as he was, he was not imprisoned at all. The brief deduces the corollary that his non-existent punishment cannot possibly be ‘increased.’ As other corollaries it might be suggested that he is liable in quasi-contract for the value of his board and lodging, and criminally liable for obtaining them by false pre-tences. We cannot take this optimistic view. Though appellant’s first sentence was ‘void,’ he was threatened with and suffered imprisonment under it. His second sentence, from which he now appeals, increases his punishment both in length and in kind beyond that which he faced under the first.””
4 later decisions quote this exact passage“doctrine that a prisoner, whose guilt is established, by a regular verdict, is to escape punishment altogether, because the court committed an error in passing the sentence.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage““It may be argued, first, that [appellant] should not be penalized because [the first sentence] was unlawful; and second, that future prisoners who may be sentenced unlawfully should not be deterred from protest by fear of increased severity. There is force in these considerations: but as arguments for exercising judicial discretion in the prisoner’s favor they must be addressed to the trial court, and as arguments for a rule of law in liis favor they must be addressed to the Supreme Court or to Congress.””
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.