Award Information
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2008, $170,105)
Under this award, the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) will carry out the 'Survey of State Court Criminal Appeals: Development and Design' project.
The NCSC will develop and design a survey focusing on criminal cases appealed from trial courts to state intermediate appellate courts and/or courts of last resort.
The goal of the proposed project is to generate knowledge about the criminal appellate process and statistics, including the collection of data on the types and dispositions of criminal cases appealed, the impact of appellate litigation on trial court outcomes, and appellate case processing time. The project is the first of its kind to develop a data collection program to examine criminal appeals in state courts. It will build on the prior work BJS has done regarding appellate litigation in the civil area.
Under this award, the NCSC will carry out the following activities: (1) develop a data collection instrument to obtain information on criminal cases appealed from a state trial court to an intermediate appellate court and/or court of last resort; (2) develop various sampling methodologies for producing reliable estimates of state criminal appellate litigation; (3) develop statistical models for assessing the reliability of the proposed sampling frameworks; (4) conduct field tests of the data collection instrument in a range of intermediate appellate courts and courts of last resort; (5) encourage participation from key professional appellate court agencies; and (6) provide an implementation plan for the national data collection to begin in 2009.
CA/NCF