Wrongful ConvictionUnder normal circumstances, when an innocent person is convicted of crimes they never committed, they are totally devastated and have no idea what to do or where to turn because of the wrongful conviction. Any possibility of resolving the wrongful conviction will usually rest with a family member and the normal procedure would be to have the trial attorney or another lawyer file an appeal brief in behalf of the person who was convicted. One problem with the appeal process is that most people have no comprehension as to what it is or how it affects the wrongful conviction. An appeal is basically a study of the trial transcript by the higher court to determine if the lower court committed reversible error and, if it has and those errors are significant and properly identified by the defense attorney, the higher court can reverse the conviction, but usually in favor of a new trial. Right back to square one. Never lose sight of the fact that if the trial attorney was incompetent and never objected to crucial issues, the lower court would have had nothing to rule on and therefore, the higher court would have nothing to reverse on. During the appeal process, the convicted party often sits in prison for as much as a year before an appeal brief is prepared and filed and then, possibly another two years waiting for a decision from their Supreme Court. In most cases, the Supreme Court will simply uphold the conviction. If the appeal is denied, then there are other avenues of post-conviction relief available, such as a Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus, but each has a price-tag and each takes time. The fact is, attempting to reverse a wrongful conviction should be handled by an experienced expungement lawyer, but that is not always possible. What about the accused who was convicted simply because their attorney was totally ineffective in representing them. If the specific reason for the conviction was ineffective assistance of counsel, it is often difficult to get another attorney to even discuss the issue, even an attorney who was retained to prepare an appeal. In a specific case, a man was convicted solely because of ineffective assistance of counsel. He had absolutely no defense whatsoever. Following his conviction, a court-appointed attorney was assigned to prepare an appeal. That attorney knew, without question, the specific reason for the conviction, but absolutely refused to address any ineffective assistance issue in the appeal. Because of that, the higher court then rejected the ineffective assistance argument raised later in other petitions, stating that the issue had not been addressed at either the trial or appeal level. In most cases, when considering an attorney to prepare an appeal brief, it is a good idea to have someone other than the trial attorney do so. If the appeal is being prepared by the trial attorney, depend on the fact that they will never raise any ineffective assistance issue which would, in reality, mean they were referring to themselves as incompetent. While an appeal brief may benefit many, it does not benefit everyone. As previously stated, it deals specifically with a study of the trial transcript and if the trial attorney was ineffective and did not properly object when required, again, the lower court had nothing to rule on and the upper court has nothing to reverse on. Also consider that a great many of the issues regarding ineffective assistance of counsel and prosecutorial misconduct most probably took place prior to trial, therefore cannot be raised in appeal. CLICK HERE For A Qualified Expungement Lawyer
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