Yesterday, we compared the Illinois and California Supreme Court’s death penalty caseloads between 1992, the beginning of our California data, through 2010, when Illinois abolished the death penalty. We found that in the years prior to Governor George Ryan’s 2010 moratorium on executions, Illinois both averaged more death penalty cases per year and was more
[The posts for today and tomorrow will be cross-posted, in slightly revised form, in the California Supreme Court Review.]
For the past two weeks, we’ve been taking a detailed look at the death penalty jurisprudence of the Illinois and California Supreme Courts here and at our sister blog the California Supreme Court Review.
Yesterday, we took an in-depth look at the Court’s tort law caseload. We showed that the Court has both accepted for review a larger share of plaintiffs’ wins from the Appellate Court than defense wins, and has reversed those plaintiffs’ wins more often. Today, we’re taking another look at the Court’s death penalty cases.
Overall,
Yesterday, we reviewed the Court’s year by year caseload of tort cases. Today, we’re looking at the Court’s death penalty cases.
The Court decided fifteen death penalty cases in 1990, thirteen cases in 1991, twenty-three cases in 1992, thirteen cases in 1993, seventeen cases in 1994, eighteen cases in 1995 and twenty cases in 1996.
Yesterday, we reviewed the individual Justices’ voting records in death penalty cases for the years 1990 through 1999. Today, we’re looking at the Justices’ voting records for the years 2000 through abolition in 2010.
Partial reversals with the sentence affirmed were quite rare during the years 2000 through 2004. Justice Miller led the Court, voting
Last week, we discussed the data on how often the Justices of the Court voted with the majority in the Illinois Supreme Court’s death penalty cases between 1990 and 2010 (after which the death penalty was abolished). This week, we review the individual Justices’ votes.
In Table 551, we report the fraction of each Justice’s
Yesterday, we began our analysis of the individual Justices’ voting records in death penalty cases – specifically, how often each Justice voted with the majority. Today, we’ll review the data for the years 2000 through 2010. First, the years 2000 through 2004. Justices McMorrow (34 cases), Rarick (4 cases) and Bilandic (17 cases) voted with
For the past several weeks, we’ve been comparing the death penalty jurisprudence of the Illinois and California Supreme Courts. Having reviewed the county-by-county reversal rates last week, this week we’re looking at the individual Justices. We’ll review two indices of the Justices’ views and influence on the Court: first, the percentage of cases where the
Yesterday, we began reviewing the data on majority opinions in death penalty cases from 1990 through the Court’s last death penalty appeal in 2010. Today, we look at a related question: did the Court’s majority opinions tend to run longer when the Court was partially or fully reversing?
Interestingly, across the entire twenty year period,
For the past two weeks, we’ve been studying death penalty appeals, both here and on the California Supreme Court Review blog. This week, we turn our attention to the authors of the Court’s majority opinions in death penalty cases.
Once again, we divide the cases into four results: (1) affirmance; (2) partial reversal with sentence