Does anyone have any recent stats for the grant rate of PDRs. I know I've seen a breakdown somewhere of the grant rate for defense PDR versus State PDRs � I just can�t remember where it was.

Some information which I compiled about suceess rates for granted petitions is found at PDR Success, although it is already dated. OCA does not divide out according to who the petitioner was, but in FY 2006 1752 PDRs resulted in 164 petitions granted. I beleve a much higher percentage of State's petitions are granted than defendants'.

Martin, I think other studious court watchers would agree with you, but given that we have discretion when to file PDR and greater skill in picking cases (remember, many defense PDR's are pro se), the State's success rate ought to be higher.

I did not mean to imply the court played favorites. The same trend/pattern would be noticeable at any discretionary review court, and for the reasons you state.

Thanks. I thought I'd pass along the numbers from the past fiscal year.

A total of 149 pdr's were granted by the Court of Criminal Appeals between 09-01-06 and 08-31-07.

Broken down by percentage:

Defendants -- 46%

This percentage included defendants with counsel (67) and without
counsel (1).

State -- 53%

This percentage included pdr's filed by the State Prosecuting Attorney (25) as well as those pdr's filed by the district attorney of the county
in which conviction was attained.


There were also 2 pdr's granted by the Court of Criminal Appeals on it's own discretion.

I certainly don't think there is anything out of line with the State having a better percentage than the defense. In any appellate system, the party that was reversed by the court of appeals will have a better chance of getting relief from the high court. For example, the numbers I've seen indicate that the federal government gets its cert. petitions granted by the USSC at a rate of about 70 to 80 percent. The federal government generally boasts a cert. success rate of over 80 percent,
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:lqQs4O53w9QJ:www.goldsteinhowe.com/blog/archive/2002_11_10_SCOTUSblog.cfm+%22cert+petitions%22+government+percentage+granted&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=6&gl=us

62 Mo. L. Rev. 101 at 112 (About three-fourths of the certiorari petitions the federal government files receive a certiorari grant, [FN41]) Eric Schnapper, Becket at the Bar--The Conflicting Obligations of the Solicitor General, 21 Loy. L.A. L. Rev. 1210-11 (1988); Stern et al., supra note 10, S 4.1, at 164 (stating about 70 percent of federal government petitions received grants from 1985 through 1991).


I'd imagine a defendant's chances of getting a cert granted would be well below 1 percent.

I think what the cranks complain about is that a State's PDR appears to have a 60% chance to get granted, while a defendant's PDR appears to have a 5% chance to get granted, based upon the total number of PDRs filed in each category. (Those numbers are fiction for the purposes of the post, I have no idea what the actual numbers are). I like your numbers, though, because those show that the Court's actual business is fairly divided between State and defense.