P.O. Box 617    Holland, OH 43528    PH: (419) 868-6016    Fax:(419) 865-0526    E-mail: trialsuppservice@aol.com

Important Notes...

The Reality:  Basic Facts about Appeals

A low percentage of appeals are successfully overturned and remanded for a retrial.

The percentages for success decrease with each subsequent appeal.

State Supreme Courts hear less than 8% of all discretionary appeals.

Direct appeals are the first set of appeals after the trial.  The direct appeal is designed to argue error or errors  that ‘appear on the record’, that is in court filings and transcripts.  In most situations, you are guaranteed appellate counsel if you financially qualify as indigent for your direct appeals.

Post-conviction Relief (PCR), (some states use different terms and initials) is to argue error or errors that do not ‘appear on the record’.  For example, you might argue that the attorney did not do things he should have done such as calling certain witnesses and so on.  Generally, you are not guaranteed appointed counsel for a PCR.  Additionally, many states have strict time-deadlines for filing this action which might necessitate this appeal being perfected while your direct appeal is still pending.

If you ever eventually file in Federal Court, you must exhaust all state remedies (including post-conviction relief) in order to ‘have standing’ to file an appeal.  If you did not utilize all state remedies, the Federal Court will generally dismiss your appeal.

Appeals take a long period of time and are very costly.  Attorney fee’s alone can run into the tens of thousands of dollars.

With some appeals, there is the additional cost of hiring an investigator and/or obtaining affidavits and/or hiring an expert or exerts to review the case, possibly write a report, and testify if an evidentiary hearing is granted.

It is rare to find any attorney or expert willing to take a case “pro bono”.  Attorneys who have been successful in reversing convictions are constantly bombarded with requests for free help.  They can’t afford to take “pro bono” cases with any kind of regularity.

Appeals properly done are very time-consuming.  The amount of time an attorney is willing to put into a case is many times determinative of what they are paid.  (Remember the old adage:  “you get what you pay for”).  If a lawyer quotes an unusually low fee, be suspicious.

Many innocent people are in prison.  The fact that the person is innocent should make the attorney work harder, but it won’t make him/her work for free.

The sad truth is that, in this country, truth and justice generally comes with a high price-tag. 

If you rely on the State to pay for your appeal, most likely you will receive minimal assistance.

Beg, borrow, sell assets, hold fundraisers---do what you need to do to fund your fight.  This is the time to call on family, friends, and acquaintances.   What is your life/freedom worth?