Evaluation of the processing of habeas corpus cases in US District Courts, Crime and Justice Research, National Institute of Justice.

This award supports completion of an ongoing empirical inquiry into Federal habeas corpus review of State criminal judgments in U.S. district courts under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA). The study examines: 1) processing time; 2) operation and application of defenses and other limitations on review (i.e., exhaustion, procedural default, statute of limitations, successive petitions, and Teague); 3) claims raised (esp. allegations of innocence); and 4) merits review (incl. harmless error). Data include information from about 2800 randomly selected non-capital cases filed Nationwide in 2002-2004, and about 300 capital cases filed in 13 districts in 2000-2002. CA/NCF