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Kirk Jenkins brings a wealth of experience to his appellate practice, which focuses on antitrust and constitutional law, as well as products liability, RICO, price fixing, information sharing among competitors and class certification. In addition to handling appeals, he also regularly works with trial teams to ensure that important issues are properly presented and preserved for appellate review.  Mr. Jenkins is a pioneer in the application of data analytics to appellate decision-making and writes two analytics blogs, the California Supreme Court Review and the Illinois Supreme Court Review, as well as regularly writing for various legal publications.

Last week, we began our review of the Court’s experience with governmental entities.  This week, we’re evaluating governmental entities’ winning percentage.

Petitioners won 85.71% of their cases in 1994, 59.09% in 1995 and 100% in 1996.   Petitioners won 85.71% in 1997, 64.29% in 1998, 57.14% in 1999 and 71.43% in 2000.

In 2001, petitioners won

For the past several weeks, we’ve looked at the Court’s record with death penalty appeals.  This week and next, we’re looking at the Court’s record with parties that are governmental entities.

In Table 308, we report the year-by-year data for governmental entity petitioners, beginning in 1994.  The numbers have varied widely.  The Court decided seven

Yesterday, we began our review of the individual Justices’ voting records in death penalty cases, discussing the data on the percentage of the time each Justice voted with the majority in death penalty appeals for the years 1994 through 2005.  Today, we address the second half of our study period, 2006 through 2017.

Incredibly, for

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

Yesterday, we began our review of the Court’s majority opinions in death penalty appeals between 1994 and 2017, focusing on complete affirmances and partial reversals where the sentence was affirmed.  Today, we review the second half of our analysis: partial reversals where the sentence was vacated, and complete reversals.

In Table 291, we report the

Yesterday, we reviewed the data for the year-by-year numbers of mandatory death penalty appeals decided by the California Supreme Court.  Today, we review the overall affirmance rates, county by county.

For the entire period, the Court has decided 425 death penalty appeals.  The Court has affirmed 342 in all respects.  The Court has partially reversed

This week, we’re continuing our comparative analysis of the death penalty appeal cases, both here and over at the Illinois Supreme Court Review.  The discussion is particularly timely for California given the Supreme Court’s decision largely upholding the controversial death penalty initiative adopted in November by the voters.  This week, we disaggregate the Court’s overall