Title: Why Appeals in Death Penalty Cases Take So Long | Lawyers.com
Headings: Why Appeals in Death Penalty Cases Take So Long
Why Appeals in Death Penalty Cases Take So Long
The Typical Path of State Criminal Appeals
Appealing a State Court Conviction: A Direct Appeal
Appealing a State Court Conviction: Filing a Writ of Habeas Corpus
Appealing a State Court Conviction: Going to Federal Court
The Typical Path of Federal Criminal Appeals
Death Penalty Appeals
Delays Caused by the State
Is the Long Appeals Process a Waste of Time?
Questions for Your Lawyer

Content: If they lose, they can ask the U.S. Supreme Court to take the case. And, like state defendants, they can file parallel or subsequent writs of habeas corpus, arguing for reversal based on issues that are beyond the trial record. Death Penalty Appeals
As you can see, the system for filing appeals and writs in a criminal case is quite complex. And, in fact, few convictions go beyond a direct appeal to the intermediate appellate court. Once that is lost, there’s no guarantee that the state’s highest court (or the U.S. Supreme Court, for federal cases) will take the case (typically, they take very few). As for writs, these take time and money and are appropriate only when the defendant has outside-the-record claims. Few can raise these claims credibly. Death penalty cases are different. Because the stakes are so high, state legislatures have recognized that they must provide funds for lawyers to take advantage of every opportunity to raise arguments that might save their clients’ lives (most death penalty defendants are indigent and rely on publicly paid lawyers). This means that the appeal will surely go to the state’s highest court (in California, in one lonely example of efficiency, the case skips the intermediate appellate court and goes directly to the highest court), and might be presented to the U.S. Supreme Court as well.