Direct Appeals in a Criminal Case

Many of our clients ask about filing a direct appeal in a state criminal case. They usually want to know: what is it? Can it help me? Should I do it?

What is it? A direct appeal is the first stage in the appellate process. In state criminal court in Florida, there are lower level courts called county courts and circuit courts. Direct appeals from county court are extremely rare due to the fact the county court only deals with less serious misdemeanor and county ordinance criminal offenses. Direct appeals from circuit court are extremely common. At the circuit court level, a person is accused of a crime and is typically either found not guilty by a jury, guilty by a jury, or pleads guilty. If a person is found not guilty, the case is over at the state level forever due to the fact that the state only gets one bite at the apple, meaning they can not lose one round and then try again for a conviction. This is a one round fight and an accused should be in it to win it . . . no overtime or extra rounds here. Thankfully, the founders of our country protected us as citizens from overzealous prosecutors and prohibited such action on the grounds that allowing someone to be tried more than once for the exact same crime is fundamentally unfair and constitutes impermissible double jeopardy.

If an accused is found guilty or pleads guilty, then he or she has the right to appeal the sentence within thirty days of the date of the imposition of the sentence. This is one of those rights that, if you don’t use it then you lose it. Very rarely will a court agree to allow someone to appeal a conviction and sentence after the thirty days has passed. The appeals process in Florida typically lasts a minimum of six months to one year. This process is mainly delayed by the high number of cases waiting to be decided and the delay in the clerk of court and court reporters preparing the appeal records. Regrettably, if a person has been sentenced to jail or prison, in most cases they will begin serving their time before the appeals process ends.

Can it help me? This is a hard question to answer because it depends entirely on the facts of your specific case. Know this, no attorney can guarantee a result no matter how much money you may be willing to pay them. The appellate court and the appellate court alone decides the final outcome of your case. Appeals are very difficult to win, not impossible, but very difficult. One reason is due to their very nature, that is, you are asking a higher court to look at what happened on your case in the lower court, and you are also asking that higher court to tell the lower court that they made a mistake. The better answer to this question is that an appeal will not always help you change a given result, but it will rarely if ever hurt you.

Should I do it? This also depends upon the specific facts of your case. Know this, most attorneys can look at your case and come up with at least one issue to file on appeal. However, that does not mean that it is a good issue. The better question to analyze before deciding to do an appeal is whether your appeal argument stands a chance legally speaking, or is the argument so far fetched and not based on the law that you are wasting your time and money.