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Archive for the ‘appeals’ Category
Friday, April 29th, 2011
The Garridos plead guilt in the Jaycee Dugard kidnapping. Part of the sentence for both Garridos is they gave up all of their appeal rights.
If this plea took place in Pennsylvania, could they have given up their appeal rights? I think the answer is yes and no.
In Pennsylvania, there are two types of appeal: direct and PCRA (Post Conviction Relief Act). A direct appeal is what people normally think about when they want an appeal, that is to appeal a decision made by the judge in the trial or to appeal something the prosecutor did that was not fair during trial. A PCRA appeal is much different. The three main types of PCRA appeals that we see in our office are appealing some mistake that your own lawyer made, newly discovered evidence, or an illegal sentence.
I think that a defendant can give up their right to a direct appeal in consideration of a deal with the prosecutor. However, I do not believe that you can waive your PCRA rights. If the plea is illegal, if your lawyer tricked you into pleading guilty, or even if you can show that your plea was not voluntary, you may be able to file a PCRA even if you waive your appellate rights.
Tags: appeal, appeal rights, appeals, jaycee dugard, lawyer, pcra, pennsylvania, plea, post conviction relief, prosecutor
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Saturday, November 6th, 2010
Susan Wright was convicted of first degree murder in 2004 and was sentenced to 25 years in a Texas jail. She stabbed her husband approximately 200 times while he was in asleep in bed giving her the moniker “blue-eyed butcher”. She claimed it was self defense. The prosecution claimed that she had slipped him a mild dose of the date rape drug before bedtime, then tied him to the bed and stabbed him to death. Stories conflicted of why she killed him, the type of person he was or straight malice, etc., but in the end, the blue-eyed butcher apologized to the family for taking her husband’s life. Her sentence was reduced to 20 years.
The relevance of this case is that the appeals court in Texas sent the case back for re-sentencing because the criminal defense attorney erred during the case, specifically the sentencing.
In Pennsylvania, we have two types of appeals: direct and pcra (post conviction relief act). In a direct appeal, you appeal the trial itself, that the judge made a mistake or didn’t give you a fair trial, that an error occurred during your case. In a pcra, you can appeal for many reasons, but if the case of the blue-eyed butcher had occurred in Pennsylvania, her claim would have been ineffective assistance of counsel, that her lawyer erred under the pcra. This distinction is important in Pennsylvania, because you cannot exercise your rights under the pcra until you have fully exhausted all of your direct appeal rights, which can take many years.
Tags: appeal, appeal rights, appeals, appeals court, conviction, criminal defense attorney, date rape drug, first degree murder, ineffective assistance of counsel, malice, pcra, post conviction relief, post conviction relief act, prosecution, self defense, susan wright, texas jail
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Tuesday, April 7th, 2009
The high court handed down the opinion in Corley v. U.S. this week, and reversed a bank robbery conviction. At issue, the prompt presentment requirement, which requires arresting officials to bring an arrestee before a magistrate without undue delay.
In the Corley case, Mr. Corley was arrested for bank robbery and held without seeing a judge or a magistrate for thirty hours, while the FBI interrogated him about the robbery. Ultimately, Corley confessed and was convicted. The Supreme Court threw the conviction out this week due to the unlawful thirty hour unnecessary delay. In doing so, the Court has breathed new life into the McNabb-Mallory rule, which in essence allows the government a six-hour delay in bringing a suspect before a magistrate. After the six hour point, even voluntary confessions may now create suppression issues.
Score one for the rule of law!
Tags: Supreme Court; confession; suppression
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Tuesday, March 31st, 2009
Except in very limited circumstances, the United States Supreme Court only hears appeals from the various federal circuit courts of appeals or the highest court of the several states.
There is no automatic right to review by the Supreme Court. A party that desires to have their case heard by the Court must file what is called a Petition for a Writ of Certioari. The Justices decide based on that petition, as well as any brief in opposition thereto filed by an opposing party, whether they will hear the case. If the Justices grant the Petition for a Writ of Certioari, the parties are directed to file briefs and oral argument may be set.
There is a very strict time limit of ninety (90) days in which a party must file the Petition. The ninety days start running from the time of the entry of final judgment in the lower court.
Tags: appeal, appeals, law, lawyers, united states supreme court, writ of certiorari
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Wednesday, February 4th, 2009
In Philadelphia county, if you are charged with only misdemeanors your case is heard in the Muncipal Court of Philadelphia. In the Municipal Court of Philadelphia you do not have the option to have a jury trial, but the federal constitution of the United States of America guarantees you a trial by a jury of your peers. Therefore, if you are unhappy with the outcome of your case in the Municipal Court of Philadelphia, you can take a de novo appeal to the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia and start over entirely.
Additionally, if you think the judge in the Municipal Court case made a mistake as a matter of law, you can file a writ of certiorari in Common Pleas Court and ask the Common Pleas judge to review the Municipal Court ruling.
Tags: appeals, de novo, municipal court, writ of certiorari
Posted in appeals, municipal court | No Comments »
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