If you have been convicted of a federal crime, whether a white collar offense such as extortion or a federal drug charge, you may have been convicted in error and there may have been irregularities at your trial. The system allows you to appeal a federal criminal conviction.

An appeal is started by the filing of a notice of appeal with the clerk of the court in which the case was tried within ten days after the district court enters the judgment of conviction, or within ten days after the government files a notice of appeal. A notice of appeal may be filed immediately after sentencing, even if the judgment has not yet issued.

The ten-day time limit is mandatory and jurisdictional. However, within the thirty days after the ten-day period has expired, a defendant may move for leave to file a late notice of appeal based on excusable neglect. The denial of a motion for leave to file a late appeal is itself a final appealable order.

After filing the notice of appeal, the record must be prepared. The record on appeal consists of the reporter's transcripts (the word-for-word record of all proceedings before, during, and after trial), and the clerk's records (composed of written pleadings such as motions, court orders and jury instructions).

The appellate court does not decide whether a defendant is guilty or innocent. Rather, the question before the court of appeals is whether there are one or more legal errors that affected the verdict. If these legal mistakes are important enough, then the case is sent back to the trial court, usually for a retrial. On fewer occasions, where the law prohibits further prosecution, a case will be reversed with directions to dismiss it. If the legal mistakes only concerned a sentence, then the defendant may be entitled to resentencing.

Examples of issues raised in criminal appeals are arguments that the evidence does not support the verdict, or that the evidence was improperly admitted or excluded. A judge's pretrial and trial rulings also can be raised on appeal. Other issues for appeal include problems with jury voir dire, such as when a prosecutor exercises peremptory challenges based on race, or when the district court improperly refuses to excuse a biased juror.

Your conviction is not truly final until you have exhausted your right to appeal. Our experienced attorneys may be able to give you another chance by seeking a review of your trial court conviction in seeking a retrial, a re-sentencing, or an acquittal.

 

Our attorneys can prepare pre-trial and trial court records for evidence to convince the appellate courts of prosecutorial misconduct, juror misconduct, a failure to follow proper procedures, a misinterpretation of the law, an inappropriate omission of determining facts, a failure to suppress inadmissible evidence, or an abuse of discretion. The firm works to present powerful, persuasive arguments to get your case reversed or retried.

 

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