Filing a criminal appeal requires that you have some knowledge about the process. When you are getting ready to file, you need to determine what points in your initial case you need to address. You have to realize that you aren’t actually getting a new trial. Instead, the goal of an appeal is to have the court look at your case to determine if the decision in the case is valid based on the facts that were originally presented.
There is chain of command that you have to follow when you are filing appeals. You can’t just automatically take your case to the United States’ Supreme Court. Even if you were able to do that, there isn’t any guarantee that the Supreme Court would hear your case.
The chain of command for appeals is the court that is one spot higher. A higher court will hear the case each time it is appealed. Following this order is very important since this is what makes the appeal process work as it should.
You should also remember that how appeals are handled depends on which court the conviction is in and where the appeal is being made. The process for appealing federal convictions is much different than the one for state court convictions.
It is important that you take quick action if you are going to file an appeal in your case. There are time limits that must be complied with so you don’t want to waste time. This doesn’t mean that you can just throw together the appeal. Instead, you need to plan it carefully so that you know it addresses the applicable points.
Source: FindLaw, “Criminal Appeals Overview,” accessed April 06, 2018
