Earlier this week, we reviewed the data on the percentage of the time each Justice of the Illinois Supreme Court voted with the majority in death penalty cases. Today and tomorrow, we’ll be reviewing the same measure for the California Supreme Court during the years 1994 through 2017.
We begin with the years 1994 through 1999. For these years, Justice Arabian voted with the majority in all his death penalty decisions – 24 of 24. Chief Justice George voted with the majority in 98.46% of his death penalty cases. Justice Chin voted with the majority in 40 of his 41 death penalty cases – 97.56%. Justice Baxter voted with the majority in 62 of 64 death penalty cases – 96.88%. Chief Justice Lucas voted with the majority in 23 of 24 cases – 95.83%. Justice Werdegar voted with the majority 95.16%. Justice Brown did so 94.87% of the time. Justice Kennard did 90.77% of the time. Justice Mosk voted with the majority only 48 of his 65 cases – 73.86%. Finally, pro tem Justices sitting by designation voted with the majority half the time – three of six cases.
In Table 296, we report the data for the years 2000 through 2005. Designee Justices voted with the majority in all seven of their death penalty cases. Justices Baxter and Werdegar both voted with the majority in 106 of 107 cases – 99.07%. Justice Chin voted with the majority in 98.13% of his 107 cases. Justice Janice Rogers Brown voted with the majority in 90 of her 92 cases – 97.83%. Chief Justice George voted with the majority in 97.14% of his 105 cases. Justice Moreno did so 96.3% of the time. Justice Kennard did in 90.65% of her cases. Once again, Justice Mosk dissented the most, voting with the majority in 83.33% of his 81 death penalty cases.
Join us back here tomorrow as we review the Justices’ voting records for the years 2006 through 2017.
Image courtesy of Flickr by Kevin Stanchfield (no changes).