Yesterday, we reviewed the year by year data, studying whether Court of Appeal cases with a dissenter were more often reversed than unanimous decisions.  Today, we’re studying the Court’s criminal cases.

The answer for criminal cases is clear: yes, cases with a dissent are more likely to be reversed than unanimous decisions, generally by a wide margin.  In 1993, 60% of divided decisions and 44.44% of unanimous decisions were reversed.  In 1994, all the divided decisions and 47.5% of decisions with a dissent were reversed.  In 1995, two-thirds of divided decisions and 43.48% of unanimous decisions were reversed.  In 1996 and 1997, all of the Court’s unanimous criminal decisions were overturned.  On the unanimous side, 38.46 and 51.22% of unanimous decisions were reversed.  In 1998, 80% of divided decisions were reversed, but only 30% of unanimous decisions were.  In 1999, 100% of divided decisions were reversed, but only 45.45% of unanimous decisions were.  In 2000, half of the divided decisions were reversed, while 34.04% of unanimous decisions were reversed.  In 2001, all of the unanimous decisions were reversed, but only 38.89% of unanimous decisions were.  In 2002, two-thirds of the divided decisions were reversed, while 49.15% of unanimous decisions were reversed.  In 2003, 80% of unanimous decisions were reversed, and 36.21% of the Court’s unanimous decisions were reversed.  In 2004, 76.92% of divided decisions were reversed, while only 36.67% of unanimous decisions were reversed.  In 2005, three-quarters of the Court’s divided decisions and 35.09% of the unanimous decisions were overturned.  In 2006, all of the Court’s divided decisions and 46.94% of the Court’s unanimous decisions were reversed.  In 2007, 70% of the Court’s divided decisions were reversed, while only 25.49% of the Court’s unanimous decisions were.

In 2008, half the divided criminal decisions were reversed and 30.36% of unanimous decisions were.  In 2009, three-quarters of decisions with dissents were reversed, and 31.58% of unanimous decisions were reversed.  All of the Court’s divided criminal cases were reversed in 2010 and 2011.  In 2010, the reversal rate for unanimous decisions was 30.88%.  In 2011, only 20.45% of the Court’s unanimous criminal decisions were reversed.  In 2012, 42.86% of the Court’s divided decisions and 42.86% of the unanimous decisions were reversed.

In 2013, all of the Court’s divided decisions were reversed, but only 38.64% of the Court’s unanimous decisions were reversed.  In 2014, two-thirds of the  Court’s divided decisions were reversed, but 40.38% of the unanimous decisions were reversed.  In 2015, none of the Court’s divided decisions were reversed, and 52.27% of unanimous decisions were reversed.  In 2016, all of the Court’s decisions with dissents were reversed, and 53.06% of the unanimous decisions were reversed.  In 2017, only one-third of decisions with dissents were reversed, and 43.59% of the Court’s unanimous decisions were reversed.

Join us back here next Thursday as we address another issue in our study of the Court’s decision-making.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Kai Schreiber (no changes).