What Can We Infer From Justice Freeman's Question Pattern In Criminal Cases?

Last week, we looked at the pattern of Justice Freeman's questioning in oral arguments in civil cases, analyzing whether he tends to ask more questions of the party he will ultimately vote against, and what impact writing an opinion has on questioning. This week, we take a look at Justice Freeman's patterns in criminal cases.

In Table 473 below, we report the data for criminal cases in which Justice Freeman votes with the majority. In affirmances, Justice Freeman averages 1.78 questions to appellants (the losing party), but only 1.07 to appellees. When he is writing the majority in an affirmance, Justice Freeman questions the appellants a bit more heavily, averaging 2.67 questions, but writing has little impact on his questioning of the winning party. Writing a concurrence has only a slight impact. He averages 2 questions to appellants, and only 0.67 to appellees. When not writing in an affirmance, Justice Freeman averages 1.65 questions to appellants, 1.06 to