A MULTISTATE ANALYSIS OF TIME CONSUMPTION IN CAPITAL APPEALS

This project will examine the time allotments for each major component of the direct review process in death sentence cases. For death penalty cases direct review is conducted by the state court of last resort (COLR). It also includes the first (discretionary) appeal to the United States Supreme Court (USSC). The cases for this project will be drawn from 14 representative states in which the state COLRs rendered a decision on direct review between 1900 and 1999. The selected states to be studied were selected to insure variability in the number of death sentences, reversals, and executions. Cases will be identified by use of existing datasets, through Lexis and Westlaw and based on information provided by the COLR clerks. The principal goal is to determine the time allocations by each state studied for each component of the direct review process and to explain the differences in processing time across states.

This project is a supplement to a previously awarded grant (number 2004-IJ-CX-0005), A Multi-state Analysis of Time Consumption in Capital Appeals) which examined the time allotments for direct review (the first stage of the post conviction process) of capital appeals in 14 states. The principal goal was to determine the time allocations by each state studied for each component of the direct review process and to explain the differences in processing time across states. That project is reaching a conclusion, and it was determined that it would be beneficial to understand the entire state court review processes as well. However, it is not known whether a sufficient number of cases in the sample drawn for the original project would be completely through the Post Conviction Review stage at this time. So this project would track the sample of cases already reviewed at the initial appeal in the state court for one year to determine the feasibility of continuing the study through the entire state court appeals process. This tracking would also permit the researchers to determine the number of cases which are in or have completed the habeas corpus process by the end of the project period.