Yesterday, we reviewed the California Supreme Court’s dissents in civil cases between 2008 and 2015.  Today, we turn to the Justices’ dissents in criminal cases for the same years.

Justice Kennard led the Court in 2008 and 2009, writing 6 dissents in criminal cases each year.  In 2008, Justice Chin wrote two dissents and Justice Werdegar one.  In 2009, Justice Moreno wrote four dissents, Justice Baxter two and Justice Chin one.  In 2010, Justice Moreno led with five dissents in criminal cases, Justice Werdegar wrote four, Justice Corrigan two and Justice Kennard one.  In 2011, Justice Werdegar wrote seven dissents in criminal cases and Justice Kennard wrote six.  In 2012, Justices Kennard and Liu led, writing six dissents apiece in criminal cases.  Justices Corrigan and Werdegar wrote two apiece, and Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye and Justice Chin wrote one each.  For 2013, Justice Kennard once again led with four dissents.  Justices Corrigan, Werdegar and Liu wrote two dissents each and Justice Baxter wrote one.  For 2014, Justices Liu and Kennard wrote four dissents each, and Justices Corrigan and Werdegar wrote one apiece.  Last year, Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye and Justices Werdegar and Chin led with three dissents in criminal cases.  Justices Corrigan and Liu wrote two apiece, and Justice Cuellar wrote one.

For 2008, Justice Werdegar led the Court, averaging 15 pages per dissent.  Justice Chin averaged eight pages and Justice Kennard 5.83.  For 2009, Justice Moreno led, averaging 10 pages. Justice Baxter averaged 9 pages, Justice Kennard averaged 8.17 pages and Justice Chin averaged seven.  For 2010, Justice Chin wrote a single 29-page dissent.  Justices Werdegar and Moreno were next, averaging 9.25 and 9.2 pages.  Justice Kennard averaged seven pages and Justice Corrigan averaged six.  For 2011, Justices Werdegar and Kennard averaged 7.57 and 6.17 pages, respectively.  From 2012 through 2015, Justice Liu has averaged the longest dissents in criminal cases every year.  In 2012, Justice Liu averaged 22.17 pages.  Justice Corrigan averaged 20.5 pages.  Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye averaged 11 pages.  Justices Chin, Kennard and Werdegar wrote the shortest dissents – six pages, 4.83 pages and 3.5 pages, respectively.  In 2013, Justice Liu averaged 23 page dissents.  Justice Baxter averaged 19, Justice Corrigan 10, Justice Kennard 5.75 and Justice Werdegar 5.5 pages.  For 2014, Justice Liu averaged 34.25 pages for his dissents in criminal cases.  The remaining Justices all averaged less than ten pages – Justice Corrigan (9 pages), Justice Kennard (8 pages) and Justice Werdegar (6 pages).  Last year, Justice Liu averaged 26 pages per dissent.  Justice Chin averaged 15.33 pages, Justice Werdegar 13.67 pages and Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye 13.33 pages.  Justices Cuellar and Corrigan averaged nine and five pages, respectively.

Join us back here next week as we turn our attention to a new area of our analysis.

Image courtesy of Flickr by David Wilson (no changes).