Last week, we reviewed the data on how often public entities were parties in civil cases at the Court.  Of course, criminal cases are a different matter; the State is a party to every appeal.  So this week, we address a slightly different question: how many of the Court’s criminal appeals involve appeals by the State, and how many appeals by the defendants?  And how has the State fared in terms of winning percentage in each role?

The Court decided thirty cases in 1990 where the State was the appellant.  The State was the appellant in 28 cases in 1991 and 43 in 1992.  In 1993, appeals by the State dropped sharply to 14.  The Court decided 26 appeals by the State in 1994 and again in 1995, 20 in 1996, 17 in 1997, 23 in 1998, 18 in 1999 and 20 each in 2000 and 2001.  The Court decided 34 cases involving State appellants in 2002, 39 in 2003 and 33 in 2004.

Criminal appeals initiated by the State declined over the next several years.  The Court decided 29 such cases in 2005 and 27 in 2006, but only 11 in 2007.  The Court decided 26 cases involving appeals by the State in 2008, 22 each in 2009 and 2010, 26 in 2011 and 20 in 2012.  The Court decided 18 cases involving State appeals in 2013, 22 in 2014, 19 in 2015 and 25 in 2016.

Not surprisingly, appeals initiated by defendants are far more common than State appeals in criminal cases.  The Court decided 36 cases with defense appellants in 1990, 25 in 1991, 48 in 1992, 27 in 1993, 37 in 1994 and 53 in 1995.  The Court decided 34 cases involving defense appellants in 1996, 47 in 1997, 50 in 1998 and 34 in 1999.  The Court decided 66 cases involving defense appeals in 2000.  In the years that followed, appeals by defendants declined somewhat, to 37 in 2001, 30 in 2002, 25 in 2003 and 29 in 2004.

The decline in the Court’s criminal caseload has continued in more recent years.  The Court decided 28 cases involving defense appellants in 2005, 24 in 2006, only 17 in 2007, 24 in 2008, 30 in 2009 and 33 in 2010.  The Court decided 22 cases involving defense appellants in 2011, but only 15 in 2012; 20 in 2013, only 14 each in 2014 and 2015 and 11 in 2016.

Join us tomorrow as we review the State’s winning percentage as appellant and respondent in criminal cases.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Richie Diesterheft (no changes).