Ruling for defense or prosecution doesn’t matter – application of law is key

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Every case heard by any justice or judge is to be decided on its own facts. There is nothing inherently wrong with a justice ruling in favor of criminal defendants 100 percent of the time; there is nothing inherently wrong with a justice ruling in favor of criminal defendants 0 percent of the time. What matters is that the law be followed in each case. In the race for Wisconsin Supreme Court, there has been much ado regarding in what percentage of cases Justice Louis B. Butler “votes for the defendant.” Every summer, I go over all the Supreme Court decisions that were released the previous term, and determine how often each justice was in the majority, and how often each justice votes in accord with each other justice. I do that with regard to three categories: criminal cases; tort and insurance cases; and all cases combined. Because of that, I have received many phone calls over the last month from people expecting me to know how often Justice Butler sides with defendants in criminal cases. To anyone else expecting me to provide that information, here is your answer: “I don’t know, and I don’t care.” I have no intention of going on the fool’s errand that would be trying to assemble and classify such a thing. Suppose the Court grants review to a prisoner who is challenging both his sentence and his underlying conviction; suppose a justice votes to affirm his conviction, but votes to order that he be resentenced. How am I to classify that? I can’t, and I have no intention of wasting my time trying. Scorecards determine who wins basketball championships. Justice is won by viewing each case on its own facts, according to the applicable statutes and precedents.