Introduction to Death Penalty Case Reporting

 

The Death Penalty–Caseload Summary matrix, which is new to this edition of the State Court Guide to Statistical Reporting, was developed to allow courts to track all death penalty-related issues separately from criminal appeals, due to the workload implications inherent in the amount of time needed to process these cases.  The matrices make use of the following case type categories: Death Penalty Direct Appeal, Death Penalty Petition for Review, and Death Penalty Post-Conviction Activity.  It is important to note that all death penalty-related writs should be reported under the post-conviction activity category so that courts can keep an accurate accounting of their death penalty caseloads.

 

The appellate court Manner of Disposition matrix has also been completely redesigned to allow courts to report more detailed accounts of their decisions.  The Manner of Disposition matrix reports more detailed accounts of appellate decisions.

 

There are now three distinct steps to reporting case dispositions.  The first step is the Manner of Disposition – how many cases were Decided, Dismissed, Denied, Transferred to Another Court, or disposed by Other Resolution.

 

The second step reports the Type of Court Opinion – how many cases the court disposed as Published Opinion, Memorandum Decision, Order, Per Curiam Affirmed, or Other Opinion.

 

The third step reports Case Outcomes – how many decisions were Affirmed, Reversed, Reversed and Remanded for New Trial, Remanded for New Sentence Hearing Only, Modified and Remanded to Intermediate Appellate Court, or resulted in Other Modifications.