What Can We Infer From Chief Justice Karmeier's Question Patterns In Criminal Cases?

Last week, we looked at what can be inferred from the patterns of Chief Justice Karmeier's questions in civil cases between 2008 and 2016. This week, we look at the Chief Justice's questioning in criminal cases.

In Table 497, we report the data for the Chief's patterns when voting in the majority. Like most appellate judges, the Chief Justice questions the losing side more heavily in affirmances. In such cases, he averages 2.01 questions to appellants and only 0.68 to appellees. Writing the majority opinion has an impact – when writing for the Court, he averages five questions to appellants and 1.6 to appellees. When not writing at all, the Chief Justice averages 1.56 questions to appellants and 0.54 to appellees.