Does everyone convicted get to appeal.

June 11, 2024 12:17 PM

The thought entered my mind that every convicted criminal

seems able to appeal the conviction. Is this a one time thing only, or can you keep appealing? Is this in our laws, and where?. Is there any instance where an appeal is forbidden?

posted by Czjewel to Law & Government (7 answers total)

There's a hierarchy to appeals in the US court system, typically going from local courts to Appellate Courts, to State Supreme Courts, and - in limited, specific cases - to the US Supreme Court.

Appellate courts generally review lower court decisions for legal errors, not to reevaluate the facts of the case. The appeal may be denied if you cannot show that the lower court made a legal mistake. Some of these mistakes include a violation of your rights, a biased trial judge or denial of counsel. Petitions to have a case heard by an appellate court are frequently denied.

This is a good article on the types of cases the US Supreme Court takes.
posted by Silvery Fish at 12:45 PM on June 11, 2024 [2 favorites]

There are lots of ways you can end up unable to appeal on particular issues, mostly by your lawyer not raising that issue or objecting to begin with.
posted by BungaDunga at 1:38 PM on June 11, 2024 [1 favorite]

Basically, yes, you always get to appeal, although you can't appeal indefinitely, and you have to have a pretty special case for the appeal to be accepted by a higher court. But everyone has the right to appeal, both to the jurisdiction they were convicted under, and also a hail mary writ of habeas corpus to the circuit courts, if you want to argue that your constitutional rights have been violated.

Here is a good overview.

Appeals can't go on forever, and they usually won't hold up sentencing, so you'll still have to start serving your sentence while the appeal is underway. Judges don't like invalidating the will of a jury, so you need to have some real glaring legal error to stand on, or some fantastic new evidence.
posted by dis_integration at 1:40 PM on June 11, 2024 [3 favorites]

You, as a defendant, always have the right to appeal all the way to the supreme court. That appeal may not be granted.
posted by Dr. Twist at 2:54 PM on June 11, 2024 [2 favorites]

the details are very dependent on the specific jurisdiction, not sure why everyone is assuming US courts here, but yeah you nearly always have some kind of right of appeal but it's also nearly always limited in fairly technical ways.
posted by Sebmojo at 11:45 PM on June 11, 2024

In England and Wales, you can be refused the right to an appeal, by the appellate court. This is generally because an appeal is not a retrial. There must usually either be fresh evidence that was not heard at the original trial, or some point of legal argument about the original trial. This applies in both civil and criminal cases. For example, Prince Harry was recently granted the right to appeal the decision made against him in a recent civil case he brought. And Lucy Letby was recently denied the opportunity to appeal against her murder convictions.

For criminal convictions, we have a specific body the Criminal Cases Review Commission which was set up specifically to investigate potential miscarriages of justice and see whether there is a 'real possibility' that an appeal court would quash the conviction or amend the sentence. Generally the CCRC looks at cases that have already been through the appeals system.
posted by plonkee at 3:19 AM on June 12, 2024 [1 favorite]

Until very recently, criminal defendants in Virginia (I assume generally) did not have a right to an appeal, and had to seek permission. The distinction between asking for an appeal and having an appeal as of right is sometimes (oftentimes?) marginal. The appellate court in Virginia had to examine your case anyways to determine whether to grant you an appeal.

But generally speaking, a defendant can challenge their conviction for as long as they want. And I believe now every state affords a criminal defendant an appeal as of right. There are various procedural and time requirements that must be followed with direct appeals and post-appeal challenges to the conviction (and for which there are sometimes exceptions), and failure to meet these requirements will mean your challenge will be denied without reviewing the merits. But you’re generally always able to file something. And in my experience, most states allow you to challenge your conviction based on new evidence that you couldn’t have had before. It’s just that you can’t keep litigating the same claim over and over again. You generally get one shot at the apple.

These laws in the United States will usually be in the state’s statutes with the other laws concerning criminal procedure.

I’m a criminal appellate practitioner so feel free to message me if you want to go more in depth on this.
posted by TheLinenLenin at 10:41 AM on June 13, 2024