Today, we’re continuing our review of the death penalty lag time data, looking at the average wait from the filing of the final brief – whether that’s the party reply brief or an amicus or supplemental brief – to the oral argument.

In 1990, the average was 225.23 days. It was 265.92 in 1991, 217.3 in 1992 and 301.29 in 1993, but from there it edged up: 385 in 1994, 339.47 in 1995, 807.38 in 1996, 572.14 in 1997 and 419.31 in 1998 before dropping to 372.83 days in 1999.

The average rose again between 2000 and 2009, and this time, it stayed up. It was 481.53 days in 2000, 799 in 2001, 657.57 in 2002, 707.5 in 2003, 670.24 in 2004, 297.88 in 2005, 892.79 in 2006, 758.22 in 2007, 836.27 in 2008 and 798.84 days in 2009.

The average wait for argument was 839.63 days in 2010, 795.4 in 2011, 791.48 in 2012, 1,007.72 in 2013, 890.35 in 2014 ,962.81 in 2015, 1,394.96 in 2016, 1,026.27 in 2017, 1,001.95 in 2018 and 812.33 so far in 2019.

Join us back here next Thursday as we continue our review of the lag time data.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Jay Huang (no changes).