Last week, we reviewed the data on how often public entities
were parties in civil cases at the Court. Of course, criminal cases
are a different matter; the State is a party to every appeal. So
this week, we address a slightly different question: how many of
the Court's criminal appeals involve appeals by the
State, and how many appeals by the defendants? And how has the
State fared in terms of winning percentage in each role?
The Court decided thirty cases in 1990 where the State was the
appellant. The State was the appellant in 28 cases in 1991 and 43
in 1992. In 1993, appeals by the State dropped sharply to 14. The
Court decided 26 appeals by the State in 1994 and again in 1995, 20
in 1996, 17 in 1997, 23 in 1998, 18 in 1999 and 20 each in 2000 and
2001. The Court decided 34 cases involving State appellants in
2002, 39 in 2003 and 33 in 2004.
