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Understanding Reversible Error in Criminal Appeals Final Report

The primary function of intermediate appellate courts (IACs) is error correction— examining lower court proceedings to determine the correctness of the law applied and the procedures followed. Because few IAC decisions receive further review, these courts are, in fact if not in law, the final arbiter for most appeals. Despite the central nature of this error-correction function and the vital role appeals play in assuring the integrity of the criminal justice process, little attention has been paid to IACs. Where do criminal appeals come from in terms of the trial court proceeding being challenged? What do these appeals look like in terms of the offenses involved and their seriousness? In terms of the issues raised? What are the outcomes of criminal appeals? This paper presents findings concerning data collected from five state appellate courts hearing first-level criminal appeals. Four are intermediate appellate courts—the California Court of Appeal, Third District, in Sacramento; the Colorado Court of Appeals; the Appellate Court of Illinois, Fourth District, in Springfield; and the Maryland Court of Special Appeals. The fifth court, the Rhode Island Supreme Court, is a court of last resort in a jurisdiction without an intermediate appellate court. The research results indicate that courts of first review have similar caseloads: Most appeals come from trials and involve crimes against the person and sentences of five years or less. The research results also demonstrate that the outcomes of appeals are similar from court to court: Most defense appeals are unsuccessful. Convictions are overturned in less than 10 percent of all appeals; defendants win something in an additional 10 percent of appeals. The most striking finding is that winning does not appear to be strongly associated with the type of trial court 28 UNDERSTANDING CRIMINAL REVERSALS proceeding, the severity of the offense or the length of the sentence, or the type of lawyer. The research results further indicate that the issues raised are the best predictors of whether a case is reversed on appeal.