DOI: 10.3886/icpsr21680.v1
title: Multistate Analysis of Time Consumption in Capital Appeals, 1992-2002
title: Version 1

description: Despite public controversy over the length of death penalty
 appeals, little empirical work has been done on the time allocated to
 the capital appeals process. The purpose of this study was to perform
 a multistate empirical analysis of the time expended in direct appeals
 of capital cases. The researchers included decisions from 14 states
 that they believed to be representative of the 37 states that have
 enforceable death penalty laws. For each of the 14 states included in
 the study, the researchers examined every capital case decided on
 direct appeal by the courts of last resort between the dates January
 1, 1992, and December 31, 2002. The researchers developed a case
 database by examining a variety of sources. For each of the 1,676
 cases in the multistate database, the research team collected time
 consumption data for each of the following five phases of the direct
 appeal process: (1) the postsentence stage, (2) the preparation stage,
 (3) the argument stage, (4) the decision stage, and (5) the supreme
 court stage. Variables include state, case characteristics, court
opinion variables, dates, and time consumption variables.
description: Despite public controversy over the length of
 death penalty appeals, little empirical work has been done on the time
 allocated to the capital appeals process. The purpose of this study
 was to perform a multistate empirical analysis of the capital appeals
process.
description: This study focused on the time taken to process
 direct appeals of capital cases in 14 states. These direct appeals are
 the first stage in the capital appeals process. The researchers
 included decisions from 14 states that they believed to be
 representative of the 37 states that have enforceable death penalty
 laws. For each of the 14 states included in the study, the researchers
 examined every capital case decided on direct appeal by the courts of
 last resort between the dates January 1, 1992, and December 31,
 2002.
 The researchers developed a case database by examining a variety
 of sources. First, they turned to the clerk's office of each state
 court of last resort. Practically all of the offices had electronic
 docket control systems that identified capital appeals. Second, to
 confirm completeness, the researchers searched the online legal
 databases, Westlaw and Lexis, for all years of the study. In addition,
 for cases decided through 1995, they reviewed the data on direct
 appeal produced by Liebman, et al. (2002). Once all the cases were
 identified, the clerks' offices provided, either electronically or
 though docket sheets, the dates for the completion of various steps in
 each appeal. Trial court sentencing dates for each case were obtained
 from the state supreme court clerks' offices, the trial court clerks'
 offices, appellate briefs, or through public information available
 over the World Wide Web.
 Thus, for each of the 1,676 cases in the multistate database, the
 research team collected time consumption data for each of the
 following five phases of the direct appeal process:
 
 the postsentence stage,
 the preparation stage,
 the argument stage,
 the decision stage, and
 the supreme court stage.
description: Variables include state, case characteristics,
 court opinion variables, dates, and time consumption variables. Case
 characteristics include case number, case title, case citation
 information (volume of reporter in which decision of state court of
 last resort reported, reporter in which decision of state court of
 last resort reported, and page number of reporter on which decision
 begins), intermediate appellate court (IAC) review, rule/statute
 directed to reduce processing time of capital appeals, scope of
 review, state court of last resort decision to affirm or reverse trial
 court decision, and United States Supreme Court decision. Court
 opinion variables include number of concurring opinions, number of
 dissenting opinions, page length of majority opinion, and page length
 of all opinions. Date variables include capital sentencing date,
 notice of appeal filing date, last brief filing date, oral argument
 date, state court of last resort decision date (both excluding
 proportionality decision date for New Jersey cases and using
 proportionality decision date for New Jersey cases), and United States
 Supreme Court decision date. Time consumption variables include
 sentence date to state court of last resort decision date, state court
 of last resort decision date to United States Supreme Court decision
 date, sentence date to United States Supreme Court decision date,
 sentence date to notice of appeal filing date, sentence date to last
 brief filing date, notice of appeal date to last brief filing date,
 last brief filing date to oral argument date, oral argument date to
 state court of last resort decision date, notice of appeal date to
 state court of last resort decision date, and notice of appeal date to
state court of last resort decision date.
description: None.
description: Presence of Common Scales: None.
description: The sample selected to represent the universe consists
 of 1,676 cases. The researchers included in the study decisions from
 14 states that they believed to be representative of the 37 states
 that have enforceable death penalty laws. For state selection, the
 research team relied initially on the work of Lofquist (2002).
 Lofquist classified states in terms of their application of
 the death penalty as measured by three criteria: the number of death
 sentences, the number of reversals, and the number of executions. He
 then established six categories of states, which he called
 Abolitionist, Inactive, Active, Symbolic, Inefficient, and
 Aggressive.
 The researchers included in the study states from each of
 Lofquist's categories except the Abolitionist and the Inactive. The
 12 Abolitionist states (13, if one includes New York) were excluded
 for the reason that they did not provide for capital punishment. The
 researchers also rejected the six Inactive states because the
 researchers concluded that they did not impose enough death sentences
 to permit fruitful study. The following states were chosen:
 
 Three Active states - Kentucky, New Jersey, and Washington
 Three Symbolic states - Nevada, Ohio, and Tennessee
 Four Inefficient states - Arizona, Georgia, Florida, and North
 Carolina
 Four Aggressive states - Missouri, South Carolina, Texas, and
 Virginia
description: Datasets: 
DS1: Multistate Analysis of Time Consumption in Capital Appeals, 1992-2002
description: All capital cases resolved on direct appeal by the court
 of last resort (COLR) in 14 states between January 1, 1992, and
 December 31, 2002. The 14 states are: Arizona, Florida, Georgia,
 Kentucky, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, South
Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Washington. Smallest Geographic Unit: state
description: Users are encouraged to refer to the final report,
 available from the
 National
 Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS), for more detailed
 information regarding the study design and for complete references to
publications mentioned in this description.