Section 4 Appeals
In 2010 the appeal rate (percentage of persons that filed appeals (appeals to the court of second instance or direct final appeals) of those conclusively disposed, but excluding those conclusively disposed due to a dismissal of prosecution, withdrawal of a request for a formal trial, or transfer, etc.) against judgments in a court of first instance was 10.3% in district courts and 4.7% in summary courts. Of persons conclusively disposed (including transfer, etc.) in trials of appeal to high courts as the second instance in 2010, 6,709 (97.9%) were disposed in cases where appeals were made only by the defendant, 110 (1.6%) only by the public prosecutor, and 32 (0.5%) by both, with five persons in cases which involved a reversal and remand, etc. (Source: Annual Report of Judicial Statistics).
Table 2-3-4-1 shows the number of persons conclusively disposed in trials of appeal to high courts as the second instance by type of offense and judgment in 2010. Dismissal of appeals to the court of second instance accounted for the largest in number at 4,708 persons (68.7%), followed by withdrawal of appeals to the court of second instance at 1,364 (19.9%), and then those whose first instance judgments were reversed and rendered new judgments at 740 (10.8%).
The most common reason with 750 persons whose original judgment was reversed in a high court was due to circumstances after the original judgment at 450, followed by the degree of punishment being unfair at 163, and then an error in finding the facts at 85 (those with two or more reasons for the reversal are counted in each pertinent reason) (Source: Annual Report of Judicial Statistics). 21 persons had their original guilty judgments in the first instance reversed and thereby found not guilty (Source: Annual Report of Judicial Statistics). Of 26 persons involved in not guilty judgments of first instance against which public prosecutors filed appeals to the court of second instance 18 had their original judgments reversed and thereby found guilty (Source: Annual Report Statistics on Prosecution).
Table 2-3-4-1 Number of persons conclusively disposed in trials of appeal to the court of second instance by type of offense and judgment (2010)
The final appeal rate (percentage of persons who filed final appeals of those conclusively disposed but excluding those conclusively disposed due to dismissal of the appeal to the court of second instance, the withdrawal of the appeal to the court of second instance, dismissal of prosecution, or transfer, etc.) against judgments made in trials of appeal to the court of second instance in 2010 was 38.5%. Of 2,150 persons in final appeal cases conclusively disposed in the Supreme Court (including those whose case was dealt with in a high court as the first instance) in 2010, 1,711 (79.6%) involved dismissal of the final appeal, 430 (20.0%) withdrawal of the final appeal, six dismissal of prosecution, two reversals and remands/transfers, and one first instance judgment being reversed and rendered a new judgment (Source: Annual Report of Judicial Statistics).