Winners and Losers: Dispositions of Criminal Appeals Before the Louisiana Supreme Court

• NCJ Number: 130364
• Journal: Justice Quarterly Volume: 8 Issue: 1 Dated: (March 1991) Pages: 85-105
• Author(s): D W Neubauer
• Date Published: 1991
• Length: 21 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Presented at the annual meeting of the Law and Society Association, San Diego, June 1985.

Annotation

A sample of 625 criminal cases presented for appeal before the Louisiana Supreme Court was studied to analyze the patterns of disposition. The author hypothesizes that reversals are related to the conviction offense, likelihood of trial court error, the potential for appellate court policymaking, and sentence severity.

Abstract

The results display statistically significant patterns of winners and losers. Those most likely to win on appeal are appellants convicted of nonviolent offense who received relatively lenient sentences. Conversely, criminals convicted of violent crimes and sentenced severely are less likely to win their appeals. However, error correction and policy formulation are not related to appeal court decisions. 11 notes, 46 references, and 1 appendix (Author abstract modified)