Title: What Happens in an Appeal From a Criminal Conviction | ExpertLaw
Headings: What Happens in an Appeal From a Criminal Conviction
What Happens in an Appeal From a Criminal Conviction
Contents
What Happens When You Appeal
Appeals from State Convictions
Appeals from Federal Convictions
Appellate Procedure
What Types of Error Occur at Trial
What Are Your Due Process Rights
What Happens if You Lose Your Appeal
What Happens If You Win Your Appeal
Appealing a Probation Violation or a Parole Violation

Content: Procedural Due Process - Procedural due process relates to a court's adherence to procedures that are designed to protect a defendant's liberty and property, set forth in the Constitution, including the right to an attorney, the right to appointed counsel if the defendant is indigent, the right to compel witnesses to appear at trial, the right to confront prosecution witnesses at trial, and the right to obtain a transcript of trial proceedings. Substantive Due Process - Substantive due process represents the broad notion that a person shall not be arbitrarily deprived of his life, liberty or property. If a person is deprived of the opportunity to appeal a court decision, or is convicted when the prosecutor fails to produce exculpatory evidence that tends to prove his innocence, the defendant's substantive due process rights may have been violated. When a defendant's procedural due process rights were respected, even when it appears that the wrong outcome may have been reached, courts tend to be skeptical of claims based upon alleged violations of the defendant's substantive due process rights. Back to top
What Happens if You Lose Your Appeal
Although the initial appeal from a conviction is normally by right, subsequent appeals are normally permitted only by leave of the court in which the appeal is to be filed. When a defendant is convicted in state court and the defendant has exhausted all state level appeals, either by being denied leave for subsequent appeals or by having the state's appellate courts make adverse rulings, the defendant may be able to seek relief through the federal court system. A defendant whose appeal has been declined or denied by a state supreme court may file a petition for certiorari, a fancy way of describing a request for permission to appeal, with the U.S. Supreme Court. In the alternative, the defendant may file a habeas corpus petition with a federal trial court, asking that the court review aspects of the trial court proceeding for error. An appeal from state court to a federal court must be premised upon federal issues, violations of federal constitutional law. In order to preserve the issues for the federal appeal, the defendant's state court attorneys must properly raise and preserve any federal issues with the state's trial and appellate courts.