Overview

Our justice system is imperfect and sometimes justice is not done after a jury finds a person guilty of a crime. So what can be done? After a defendant has been convicted of a crime and sentenced, the criminal defendant may file an appeal to a higher court, asking it to review the lower court's decision for legal errors that may have affected the outcome of the case. If the appellate court grants the appeal, it may reverse the lower court's decision in whole or in part. If the appellate court denies the appeal, the lower court's decision stands and the defendant may be in a position to bring further appeals.

The Right to Appeal

Before a defendant may appeal their New York State criminal conviction, a notice of appeal must be filed within thirty days of the conviction.

Grounds for Appeal

Potential grounds for appeal in a criminal case can include numerous types of legal errors that occurred during the course of the trial. These legal errors can include, but are not limited to: improperly admitted evidence, incorrect court rulings, incorrect jury instructions, lack of sufficient evidence to support a guilty verdict; ineffective assistance of counsel and prosecutorial misconduct. The nature of the error can arise from a variety of things that occurred during the trial and pre-trial proceedings. It is appellate counsel’s responsibility to sift through the transcripts and the record to determine the precise issues in each case. To grant the appeal, the appellate court must find that these errors affected the outcome of the case.

An appeal is not a retrial of the case. There are no witnesses presented. Rather, the appellate court reviews the record of the lower court's proceedings to determine if there are adequate grounds to grant the appeal. The record includes all pre-trial and post-trial motions, all court decisions, all evidence admitted to the court and a transcript of all the proceedings including the trial. In addition to analyzing the record, appellate courts also review written briefs submitted by the attorney for each party. Appellate briefs frame the legal issues raised on appeal and set forth persuasive legal arguments to support their position. The court may also hear oral argument from counsel in order to clarify any points raised in the written briefs.

Process of Appellate Review

If a defendant is convicted in state court the ruling is often appealed to an intermediate-level state appellate court. In New York, there are four separate intermediate level appellate courts and where your case is heard depends on the county in which you were convicted. If the defendant is unsuccessful in the intermediate court, the defendant may appeal their conviction to the New York state's highest court, the New York State Court of Appeals which is located in Albany. Review of appeals in the state's highest court is discretionary and is limited to only a small percentage of cases.

If a Defendant loses all of their New York State Appeals is that the end of the Appeal Process?

Not necessarily. If the defendant raised his issues in the state court under both state and federal law the defendant may then pursue relief in the federal court system. Additionally, the defendant may have grounds to bring the case back to the trial court on a motion to vacate their conviction pursuant to CPL 440.10 on a wide variety of grounds including newly discovered evidence, ineffective assistance of counsel as well as other statutorily defined grounds.