( CNN ) -- Johannes Mehserle , a former San Francisco Bay Area transit police officer , is appealing his involuntary manslaughter conviction for the killing of 22-year-old Oscar Grant in Oakland . The move has deeply angered Grant 's family , who say the appeal is an attempt for Mehserle to clear his name so that he can become a police officer again . `` I 'm here to denounce his attempt to clear his record . He committed such gross negligence that he should not be allowed back on the streets to protect and serve again , '' said Grant 's mother Wanda Johnson at a news conference Friday in Oakland . The appeal to overturn the conviction was filed this week and argued during a court hearing on Wednesday , according to Michael Rains , Mehserle 's defense attorney . The appeal questioned some of the evidence and instructions that were given to the jury at Mehserle 's 2010 trial . The three-judge panel of the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco could make a decision on the appeal in 90 days . Mehserle was accused of fatally shooting Grant on New Year 's Day 2009 on a platform of a Bay Area Rapid Transit station . Mehserle said at the trial that he intended to draw and fire his Taser rather than his gun . He was sentenced to two years in prison for the involuntary manslaughter conviction , but was released last year because of a California law that allowed him to reduce his sentence to nearly a year . Grant 's family members said they were also angry that they were not informed about the court hearing . `` We 're angered . We are hurt , '' said Cephus Johnson , Grant 's uncle . `` We were denied our right to be at this hearing . We applied to be informed about any hearing that pertained to Johannes Mehserle . This proceeding is an example of shutting victims out of the process . The family is outraged . '' This case has been controversial in California 's Bay Area community for years . The 2009 shooting was captured on a bystander 's cellphone video camera . The video showed Mehserle pulling his gun and fatally shooting Grant in the back as another officer knelt on the unarmed man . The video was widely circulated on the Internet and on news broadcasts , and it spurred several protests in and around Oakland . CNN 's Amanda Watts contributed to this report .
Johannes Mehserle was convicted in 2010 of killing an unarmed man . The jury recommended a life sentence for the former police officer who shot and killed Oscar Grant on New Year's Day 2009. It was argued in a court hearing on Wednesday . Grant 's family is angry that they were not informed about the hearing .