For the past few weeks, we’ve been analyzing the distribution of majority opinions among the Justices in civil, criminal and death penalty cases, and which Justices tend to write the longest (and shortest) opinions. Today, we turn our attention to the Court’s criminal cases between 2008 and 2015. Once again, we omit the death penalty
Yesterday, we continued our analysis of the Court’s majority opinions, reviewing which Justices wrote most and least often for the Court in non-death criminal matters, and which tended to write the longest and shortest majority opinions for the years 2000-2007. Today, we turn our attention to the Court’s majority opinions in civil cases between 2008
Last week, we looked at the Justices’ majority opinions in civil and death penalty appeals between 2000 and 2007. Today, we turn our attention to majority opinions in criminal cases. Because death penalty majorities are nearly always considerably longer than non-death cases, we limit this part of our analysis to criminal cases not involving the
Yesterday, we analyzed the Justices’ history with majority opinions in civil cases between 2000 and 2007. Today, we turn our attention to the Court’s history with majority opinions in automatic death penalty appeals. We separate out death penalty appeals from criminal cases in general because majority opinions in death penalty cases are nearly always considerably
Last week, we concluded our analysis of the distribution of concurring opinions in civil and criminal cases. This week, we turn our attention to a new topic: the distribution and average length of the Court’s majority opinions. We begin today with civil opinions between 2000 and 2007.
Between 2000 and 2007, Justice Werdegar led the
Yesterday, we demonstrated that majority opinions have been getting somewhat longer on average in criminal cases at the California Supreme Court since 2007. Today, we turn our attention to the Court’s majority opinions in automatic death penalty appeals. These two inquiries are not entirely independent; yesterday we were working with overall criminal docket data, including
For the past two weeks, we’ve been tracking trends in the length of majority opinions at the California Supreme Court. Today, we turn our attention to the Court’s criminal opinions during the years 2008 to 2015.
In the title, we ask whether majority opinions are getting longer in criminal cases. The answer is yes. As
Last week, we began our analysis of the length of the Court’s majority opinions, addressing civil and criminal cases between 2000 and 2007. Yesterday, we reviewed the Court’s majority opinions in death penalty appeals for the same period. Today, we turn our attention to majority opinions in civil cases between 2008 and 2015.
Overall, there
Last week, we began addressing trends in the length of the Court’s majority opinions, reviewing civil and criminal majority opinions between 2000 and 2007. Today, we turn our attention to the Court’s majority opinions in automatic death penalty appeals, with the data divided between non-unanimous and unanimous opinions.
As we show in Table 114 below,
Yesterday, we began our review of the length of the California Supreme Court’s majority opinions, addressing the Court’s civil opinions between 2000 and 2007. Today, we turn our attention to the Court’s majority opinions in criminal cases during the same period.
We report the data in Table 113 below. Two things are evident: first, majority