This time, we're reviewing the data on final judgments in criminal cases for the years 2000 through 2009.  First, we calculate the percentage of non-death criminal cases that arose from final judgments of conviction.  Then, we add the share of the overall docket accounted for by death penalty appeals before the state of Illinois finally abolished the death penalty in 2011.

As shown in Table 1788, the percentage of criminal cases accounted for by final judgments and death penalty appeals during this period steadily increased between 2000 and 2009.  In 2000, only 22.09% of the non-death criminal cases were from final judgments, and only 41.86% of the cases overall were either from final judgments or death cases.  That fell to 27.69% in 2003, but steadily rose from there to 48.39% in 2004, to 47.46% in 2005, to 66% in 2006, and after a brief dip in 2007 and 2008, to 61.54% in 2009.

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Join us back here next time as we review the civil and criminal data for the years 2010 through 2020.

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