Once again, a dissent at the Appellate Court was a strong indicator that the Supreme Court was more likely to reverse in criminal cases between 2000 and 2009. For the ten year period, 68.69% of cases with a dissenter below were reversed by the Supreme Court, while only 46.36% of cases decided unanimously at the Appellate Court were reversed. Divided decision reversals led unanimous decision reversals in eight of ten years. The numbers were frequently lopsided: 2001 (80% reversal of divided criminal decisions, 41.51% unanimous decisions); 2002 (71.43% to 44.44%); 2003 (77.78% to 37.5%); 2004 (88.89% to 52.27%); 2007 (87.5% to 65%); 2008 (69.23% to 48.65%) and 2009 (66.67% to 50%).
Join us back here next week as we examine the data for the years 2010 through 2020.
Image courtesy of Flickr by Matt Turner (no changes).