Yesterday, we reviewed the District-by-District reversal rates in criminal cases for the courts of Chicago’s First District. Today, we’re reviewing the data for the rest of the state.
But first, let’s review the criminal cases decided in the First District for which we couldn’t determine a specific Division (the vast majority of these cases fall before the Supreme Court’s recent decision to post Rule 23 orders on the Illinois courts’ website). From 1990 to 2017, the Court decided 121 cases from unattributed Divisions of the First District, reversing in 45.45%.
For most of the nineties, these cases were reversed at a below-average rate: 25% in 1993, 33.33% in 1995, 30% in 1996, 16.67% in 1997 and 14.29% in 1998. The reversal rate was 40% in 1999 and ticked up to 60% in 2000. The rate was 58.33% in 2001 and 50% in 2002 before falling to 38.5% in 2003. The rate rose to 56.25% in 2007, 60% in 2008 and 61.9% in 2009. From 2010 to 2014, the reversal rate was very close to the long-term average. It rose to 100% in 2015 and 2016 before falling to 33.33% in 2017.
The Court decided 185 criminal cases from the Second District between 1990 and 2017, reversing in 56.22%. The court’s reversal rate was near the long-term average until about 1999, when it fell to 45.16% in 1999, 45.45% in 2000, 33.33% in 2001, 40.91% in 2002 and 45.45% in 2003. The rate then returned to trend, and remained within ten points of the long-term average until 2014, when it fell to 30.77% and 46.15% in 2015. The rate then rose to two-thirds in 2016 and 87.5% in 2017.
The Court decided 181 criminal cases from the Third District between 1990 and 2017, reversing in 61.88%. After several years around the trend, the reversal rate rose to 71.43% in 1997, 83.33% in 1998 and 81.82% in 1999. The reversal rate then remained within ten points of the long-term average each year from 2006 to 2017, excepting only 2008: 72.73%.
The Court decided one hundred forty-four criminal cases from the Fourth District across the entire period, reversing in 54.86%. After several years relatively near that figure in the nineties, the rate increased to 70.59% in 1999, 73.33% in 2000, 80.77% in 2001 and 67.86% in 2002. After several more years near average, the rate fell to 30% in 2007 and 40% in 2008 and 2010 and 41.67% in 2011. From there until now, the Fourth District only had two outlier years – 38.46% in 2014 and 72.73% in 2017.
The Supreme Court has decided seventy-nine criminal cases from the Fifth District, reversing in 54.43%. The rate jumped to 70% in 1993 and 76.92% in 1994, before falling to 28.57% in 1997. After several years around average, the reversal rate fell to 37.5% in 2001 and 33.33% in 2002. The reversal rate was two-thirds in 2005 and 2007 before a two-year swing – first to zero in 2009 and then to 100% in 2010. The reversal rate was 50% each year from 2011 to 2013, 83.33% in 2014, 75% in 2015, 72.73% in 2016 and two-thirds in 2017.
Finally, we have the Court’s criminal cases taken directly from the Superior Courts. The Supreme Court has decided 492 criminal cases since 1990 – the vast majority prior to 2005 – reversing in 41.67%. The Court reversed in 51.9% of direct appeals in 1994. The direct appeal reversal rate fell to 22% in 2001 and 28.77% in 2003, jumping to 63.64% in 2006 and 56.25% in 2007. The reversal rate was near the long-term average from 2008 to 2012, but rose to 52.63% in 2013, 62.5% in 2014, 75% in 2015, 73.33% in 2016 and 92.31% in 2017.
Join us back here next Tuesday as we turn our attention to a new subject.
Image courtesy of Flickr by Prasad Kholkute (no changes).