For the years 2000 through 2009, a dissent at the Court of Appeal was nearly as strong an indicator of likely reversal in criminal cases as it had been in the preceding decade.  Between 2000 and 2009, 70.27% of cases with a dissent below were reversed, in whole or in part, at the Supreme Court.  Only 39.12% of cases decided unanimously were reversed.  Divided criminal decisions were statistically more likely to be reversed in all ten of these years compared to unanimous decisions, but the difference was particularly substantial in 2001 (100% of divided decisions reversed, only 38.89% of unanimous decisions), 2003 (80% to 37.93%), 2004 (76.92% to 36.67%), 2005 (75% to 36.84%), 2006 (100% to 46.94%), 2007 (70% to 29.41%) and 2009 (75% to 36.84%).

Join us back here next week as review the data for the years 2010 through 2020 and draw our conclusions.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Karen Borter (no changes).