Since joining the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Burke has participated in 128 criminal procedure cases, voting for defendants’ position in 55 and against defendants in 73 cases.  From 2006 to 2009, she voted for defendants 16 times and against them 24 times.  From 2010 to 2014, she voted for defendants 24 times and against defendants in 26 times.  From 2015 to 2019, she voted for defendants 15 times and against them in 23 cases.

Sixty-five of these cases were won by the defendants at the Appellate Court.  The Chief Justice voted to affirm 22 of these decisions and to reverse, in whole or in part, 43 times.  Between 2006 and 2009, she voted to affirm five times and to reverse 12 times.  From 2010 to 2014, she voted to affirm only ten of twenty-nine decisions.  From 2015 to 2019, she voted to affirm seven of nineteen decisions.

Sixty-two cases were lost by the defendants below.  Chief Justice Burke voted to reverse, in whole or in part, 32 of those decisions and voted to affirm 30 times.  From 2006 to 2009, she voted to reverse 10 of 22 decisions.  From 2010 to 2014, the Chief Justice voted to reverse two-thirds of 21 cases.  From 2015 to 2019, she has voted to reverse in eight cases and to affirm 11 times.

Next time, we’ll review the criminal procedure voting records of the two most recent additions to the Court: Justices Theis and Neville.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Michel Curi (no changes).