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 the majority in 100% of their death penalty cases.  Justice Fitzgerald voted with the majority in 94.12% of his seventeen death penalty cases.  Justice Garman voted with the majority in 93.75% of her sixteen cases, and Justice Freeman voted with the majority in 91.18% of his thirty-four death penalty cases.  Justices Heiple and Rathje voted with the majority in 88.24% of their seventeen death penalty cases.  Justice Miller voted with the majority in 82.35% of his seventeen death penalty cases during these years.  Justice Kilbride voted with the majority in 76.47% of his cases and Justice Thomas in three quarters of his cases.  By this time, Justice Harrison was dissenting with respect to the penalty in most death cases – he voted with the majority in only 37.93% of his cases.

For the years 2005 through 2010, Justices Thomas, Karmeier and Fitzgerald each voted with the majority in all their death penalty cases.  Justices Freeman and Garman voted with the majority in 92.86% of their fourteen cases.  Justice Burke voted with the majority in ninety percent of her ten cases.  Justice Kilbride voted with the majority in three quarters of his twelve death penalty cases, and Justice McMorrow voted with the majority in two of her three death penalty cases – 66.67%.

Join us back here next Tuesday as we continue our analysis of the individual Justices' voting records in death penalty cases.

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