NY Court of Appeals: Granting Criminal Appeals--Up, Down, Now Up Again? (Part 10: Who's Granting Now?)

Haiti
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It's Lippman, Graffeo, and Read. They're the ones who made the difference in 2009.

But first an update. The latest available data for 2009 shows that additional criminal appeals were filed in the last few days of the year. Here's what the latest tally of criminal leave applications (CLA's) granted last year looks like.
GRAPH 1
Total CLA's Granted by COA Judges
1999-03 Avg. & 2004-08 Avg. vs. 2009
(click to enlarge)

77 CLA's granted by Court of Appeals Judges is the latest total. (This total is derived from the latest available data on Westlaw, Lexis-Nexis, and the Court's own published case filings.)
As we've seen previously on New York Court Watcher, even with less complete totals, the number of grants in 2009 represents a very sharp increase from recent years.

Graph 1 depicts the contrast between the total grants for 2009 and the average annual number for the 2 most recent 5-year periods: '99 through '03, and '04 through '08.

Because averages can be misleading, let's look at the contrast between the number of grants in 2009 and the number for each of those preceding 10 years.
GRAPH 2
Total CLA's Granted by COA Judges
1999-2008 vs. 2009
(click to enlarge)

Again, as we've seen previously, the 2009 grants far exceed those for any individual year in the recent past. Graph 2 depicts just how sharp the contrast is.

Moreover, this jump in 2009 seems the result of a deliberate policy change at the Court. An article in the New York Law Journal last April, on the low rate of CLA grants in recent years, was met with Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman's expressed concern and intent to address the issue. Some change was apparently then adopted within the Court, and CLA grants are now up.

So who's granting more CLA's now? Let's look.

Supreme Court: Lessons from the Campaign Reform Decision

Haiti
***************

As if we needed a reminder--and astonishingly, some of us seem to need one periodically--the Supreme Court is not what we're usually told it is or is supposed to be. You know, what we're told by politicians, nominees, the Justices themselves, some who follow the Court and should know better, and grade school teachers.

Yes, grade school teachers. Because how they describe the Judicial Branch to our children is just about as sophisticated as what the others tell us about the Court's role and how it functions. Just think back several months to the laughably superficial and puerile debate about the Court during the Senate confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor.

NY Court of Appeals: Granting Criminal Appeals--Up, Down, Now Up Again? (Part 9: Significant Increase in 2009)

Thoughts, Prayers, Hope and Love to the Beautiful, Magnificent People of Haiti

[On another personal note--this one now embarrassingly trivial--I was away in Scottsdale during the winter break, returning just in time for the first week of the new semester. As cold and miserable as it was throughout much of the country, that's how glorious it was in Arizona. You know, deep blue skies, bright sun, desert-dry air, cool in the shade but warm-to-hot in the sun; mountains, saguaros, hummingbirds, red rock, canyons, Turf Paradise (It ain't Saratoga, but it is a beautiful track.), etc., etc., etc.
So returning to the frigid Albany winter has been quite a shock to the system. But there's absolutely no complaint here. Upstate New York and Arizona are my favorite places--well, ok, I've got to add Rome. And I'm privileged to teach at a wonderful institution, with fine colleagues, and my students are terrific.
IAE, it's now back to work on this blog after my holiday absence.]
GRAPH 1
Total CLA's Granted by COA Judges
1999-03 Avg. & 2004-08 Avg. vs. 2009
(click to enlarge)

Criminal leave grants by the Court of Appeals were up in 2009. Significantly so. As depicted in Graph 1, the number of criminal appeals taken by the Court jumped well above the typical figures for the previous 10 years.

Recall that the number of criminal leave applications (CLA's) granted by the Judges of New York's highest court had been quite low in recent years. In 1995 and 1996, then-Governor George Pataki publicly excoriated the Court for "coddling criminals," for caring more about criminals than victims, blah, blah, blah. That fairly commonplace court-bashing was joined by other politicians and by some New York City tabloids.

Regardless of the merits or nonsense of those castigations, they apparently had their effect. Almost immediately thereafter, the Court's decisions became markedly more pro-prosecution and--what is most relevant here--the Court's Judges began to grant far fewer criminal appeals. Indeed, about half as many as before.

A story by Joel Stashenko in the New York Law Journal last April called attention to the low numbers of CLA's being granted. It also quoted some representative complaints by lawyers about the difficulty of getting a criminal case reviewed by the Court--especially when CLA's were assigned for decision to particular Judges. The newly appointed Chief Judge, Jonathan Lippman, said he would look into the matter. And voila, things changed once again. Suddenly, more CLA's--many more--were being granted by the Court.