Federal Criminal Appeals

A federal criminal appeal is a legal proceeding in which the judgment or order of the court is attacked on legal grounds. A federal criminal appeal is not a retrial or a rehearing of the evidence received in the district court. Instead, it is a proceeding, which adjudicates legal errors made by the lower court in its rulings and is argued mostly by filing written briefs.

A defendant must file his or her notice of appeal within fourteen days of receiving their sentence; this is a very strict deadline that one cannot miss. The defendant must then file docketing statements.

Once a defendant has filed the notice of appeal, the court will issue a briefing schedule and will give the defendant about forty-five days to file their opening brief. In the opening brief, the defendant’s lawyer will lay out what happened in the trial court, what went wrong during the trial and put forward his or her arguments as to why the court should do something different, i.e., there was prejudicial error. The government will then, in turn, file its own brief responding to the defendant’s arguments. The defendant will then respond with his or her own reply brief.

After that, the appeal goes to a panel of three federal circuit judges who are appointed by the President. These judges will decide whether or not to hear oral arguments.

After the judges make their decision, the losing party might be able to ask the court to rehear the case, en banc, or petition the Supreme Court to hear the case. At the end of that process, that is the end of the appeal.

There are no official court reporters, no witness stands, and no juries in federal appellate courts. Appellate courts generally (but there are exceptions) do not receive evidence or testimony but consider and resolve legal arguments after the facts of the case have already been received in the district court. In many instances, the documents and the physical items that were taken into evidence in the district court are literally transported to the site of the appellate court so that the appellate judges can examine them as the court considers the legal arguments.

Federal criminal appeals are lengthy processes and can take many months, if not more than one year.

It is possible to get out of prison while the federal appeal is pending but to do so the defendant has to present clear and convincing evidence that he or she is not a flight risk or a risk to public safety. The appellant must also show that he/she has a likelihood of success on the merits on one of the appellate issues brought before the appellate court.

For new evidence to be presented during the appeal, the case has to be remanded back to the trial court for that purpose.

A federal appellant can argue pretrial motions, evidentiary issues, the sufficienct of evidence against the defendant and the sentencing that the defendant received. Common arguments also include ineffective assistance of counsel. In certain instances, this may help an individual overcome any obstacles such as the waiver of issues for appeal for failure to object in the lower court.

You may be feeling hopeless but we encourage you to contact us as soon as possible regarding an appeal. Our attorneys have extensive experience handling federal criminal appeals. We treat each and every appeal with the care and consideration it deserves and will do everything humanly possible to get you the best outcome.