Last time, we showed that there is a mild relationship between the total time pending from the grant of the petition for leave to appeal until final decision by the Supreme Court and the ultimate case result in civil cases: more often than not, affirmances took longer.  Below, we’re reviewing the Court’s criminal cases.

In criminal cases, there is a quite strong relationship between lag time and case result, but the relationship goes in the opposite direction: in nine of the past ten years, criminal reversals have been pending longer than affirmances.

Once again, the differences were typically not trivial. In 2012, reversals averaged 454.02 days while affirmances came down in 393.2 days.  In 2013, the difference was even greater: 438.2 days for reversals, 367.09 for affirmances.  In 2015, reversals averaged 398.27 days and affirmances averaged 336.6.  In 2016, reversals averaged 439.82 days and affirmances were pending for 375.47 days.  In the years since, the margin has generally been a bit less, but reversals were still slower: 393.73 for reversals and 391.04 for affirmances in 2017; 394.78 days for reversals and 380.33 for affirmances in 2019; and 412.92 for reversals to 384.01 for affirmances in 2020.

Join us back here next week as we address a new issue.

Image courtesy of Pixabay by Day_Photo (no changes).