Eliminating all the duplicates, dismissed cases, and pending cases which do not have an decision as of 12/30/06 left 549 cases decided by this court out of the 1008 cases originally filed in 2005. Of those 549 cases, 172 were civil cases, 372 were criminal cases, and 5 were extraordinary relief (habeas, mandamus, procedendo, and prohibition) cases.

The other 459 cases included 42 cases which had not yet been decided as of 12/30/06, 277 cases that were dismissed (some voluntarily, others involuntarily, and yet others for reasons that cannot be determined from the records available to me), and 140 cases that had duplicative filings and thus multiple case numbers.1

Civil

On the civil side of the house, there was one abortion appeal decision, which was a reversal of the trial court. There was one decision in a declaratory judgment case, one forfeiture decision, one post-judgment decision, one workers’ compensation appeal decision, and six probate appeals decisions, all of which affirmed the trial court. There were eight domestic relations decisions: six affirmed and two reversed. There were 153 other general civil decisions: 113 affirmations and 40 reversals. The average civil case filed in 2005 in the Court of Appeals for Hamilton County, Ohio, therefore, stood exactly a 25% chance of resulting in a reversal (43 out of 172). If we include cases that were dismissed, that percentage drops to 16.75%.

Criminal

On the criminal side, there were 372 total decisions from this court. There were twelve delayed appeals, of which 5 resulted in the reversal of the trial court and 7 affirmed the trial court’s decision. There were 17 appeals in juvenile cases: three reversals and 14 affirmations. There were also eight post-conviction appeals, of which one was successful and seven unsuccessful. There was one successful sexual predator appeal, with none unsuccessful. There were six traffic cases appealed to the court, of which only one was successful. Finally, there were 328 criminal direct appeals, of which 73 were successful in achieving a reversal of the trial court decision, and 299 were unsuccessful. Thus the reversal rate for criminal cases filed in 2005 in the Hamilton County Court of Appeals is 19.6%. Including cases dismissed prior to a written decision, that rate drops to 15.5%.

Extraordinary Remedies

Finally, there are the extraordinary remedy cases. In 2005 there were five cases filed that have made it to decision: two habeas corpus cases, two mandamus cases, and a prohibition case. The Court of Appeals granted one each of the habeas and mandamus cases, and denied the other three..

My thought is that Booker v. Washington is accomplishing exactly what the justices wanted to accomplish: to give U.S. district judges the discretion that they need to effectuate change in our society. We have taken their handcuffs off, and the world is a better place for it!