10-Year Look at Appeals Cases Shows Impact of Legislation

In a retrospective look at cases filed in federal courts over the last decade, the Statistics Division of the Administrative Office has found that the number of appeals filed in the U.S. Courts of Appeals increased 34 percent from 1990 to 1999. Filings dipped just once in that period, in 1994, when appeals filed decreased 4 percent due to declines in all categories of appeals except prisoner petitions.

Prisoner petition appeals have jumped 72 percent since 1990. The number of prisoner petitions rose 70 percent from 1990 to 1996, when their numbers began to drop in response to the constraints placed on such appeals in the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act and the Prison Litigation Reform Act, both of which became law in 1996. In 1997, filings declined 5 percent. After 1997, drops in prisoner civil rights cases were offset by increases in motions to vacate sentence and habeas corpus prisoner petitions, which drove the overall prisoner petition filings up 8 percent, where they remained relatively stable through 1999 and 2000. Other civil appeals have remained relatively stable, rising only 9 percent in 10 years.

The number of appeals of criminal cases rose 23 percent from 1990 to 1993, largely due to a rise in drug-related cases. Appeals of weapons and firearms cases also contributed to the rise, as a result of Project Triggerlock, a 1991 Department of Justice initiative to bring weapons charges against defendants who used guns in the commission of criminal acts. But between 1993 and 1995, there was a drop in appeals related to drug offenses, and criminal appeals declined 14 percent from 1993 to 1995, and then stabilized. Although during this time there was a significant increase in filings of immigration and drug cases in district courts, most of those cases were disposed of by guilty pleas, which greatly limits a defendant’s right to appeal.

A graph of the number of original proceedings filed over the last 10 years shows significant growth. Original proceedings are appeals filed that are not dependent on prior action by a lower court or administrative agency. From 1990 to 1998, these cases rose 24 percent. Then from 1998 to 1999, they soared 348 percent, due to a reporting change that was made in response to legislation. When Congress enacted in 1996 the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act and the Prison Litigation Reform Act, courts of appeals were required to process motions requesting permission to file second or successive habeas corpus prisoner petitions and changes to processing of pro se mandamus petitions (fees not paid at filing). Due to the significant work required to process these cases, they began being reported as original proceedings as of October 1, 1998.

From 1999 to 2000, original proceedings climbed 18 percent, largely due to a 66 percent jump in prisoners requesting authority to file second or successive habeas corpus petitions. This was primarily in response to the June 2000 Supreme Court decision in Apprendi v. New Jersey, which held that any fact that increases a penalty beyond the statutory maximum must be submitted to the jury and proved beyond a reasonable doubt. This decision implicates sentences for convictions in drug cases, since the maximum penalties in those cases vary depending on the type and amount of drugs involved. In 2000, motions requesting second or successive habeas corpus petitions by prisoners constituted 67 percent of original proceedings.