What percentage of cases appealed by a defendant are reversed or overturned?
In Harris County the affirmance rate, that is the rate of convictions being upheld, over the last five years has been in excess of 95%. Stated somewhat differently that means less than 5% of the defendants appealing their convictions are successful. In those statistically few instances where the conviction is set aside, a new conviction is generally sought and obtained except if the reversal was due to insufficient evidence being presented at trial. In these rare instances, we are unable to retry the cases due to the constitutional prohibition of double jeopardy.
