Appeals and Post-Conviction Relief: What’s the Difference?
When a criminal trial is over, and if the criminal trial didn’t go as anticipated for the defendant, the Defendant may be convicted of whatever crime he or she was charged with. After that, it may be time to consider post-conviction options. That may include an appeal or post-conviction relief.
So what is the difference between what is known as post-conviction relief and an appeal? Our Louisiana post-conviction relief attorney at the Law Offices of Philip B. Adams explains more below.
Timing and Grounds
An appeal is filed immediately after a criminal trial is over. It uses what happened (or didn’t happen) in the criminal trial as a basis for error and to try to get a new trial or otherwise to get the conviction overturned.
The appellate court looks only at the record in the criminal trial—what happened before the trial, what happened at trial, or did the judge, prosecutor, or the jury make some legal mistake that poisoned the trial or led to an incorrect outcome?
The appeal, therefore, looks only at what happened in the criminal case, from arrest all the way to trial, to see if some error was made.
Post-conviction relief in Louisiana can be pursued at almost any time after a conviction, whereas an appeal has strict time limits after the conviction to file the appeal, after which time, the opportunity to appeal is lost forever.
External Factors
By comparison, post-conviction relief looks at external factors—things that may not have even existed at the time of the criminal trial, or which may not have even been known.
As an example, when DNA evidence became popular, it was used as a basis for post-conviction relief everywhere—it had not previously existed or been used, and with the advent of the technology, many criminal defendants suddenly had grounds to get evidence tested to show their convictions were entered in error.
As another example, if it turns out that a juror was friends with the prosecuting attorney, or if new evidence that didn’t exist previously were to suddenly appear, or if a law change made your previously entered sentence suddenly illegal, those would be “new things,” which had nothing to do with the criminal trial itself.
Post-conviction relief thus has no limits—you aren’t confined by what happened at the trial.
Automatic Rights to Appeal
You have an automatic right to an appeal—that doesn’t mean that there are always grounds, but if your attorney can find error and make a good faith argument for an appeal, every convicted Defendant has a right to an appeal and to have their argument heard by the appellate court.
Post-conviction relief, however, requires a judge’s approval. Just because you say that there is new evidence, or something about the trial was corrupt or unjust, you need to bring that to the judge, and the judge must say “yes, these are valid grounds for the post conviction relief.”
That means that putting forth an argument for relief requires gathering facts, evidence, and investigation, much of which may have been totally separate from what may have happened at the actual criminal trial.
After a criminal conviction, you still may have options. If you think you may have grounds for relief, don't guess–ask us. Contact the Law Offices of Philip B. Adams today. We are top-rated, relentless, and aggressive Louisiana criminal defense lawyers. Complete our "Contact Us" page here. You may significantly benefit by having an attorney with legal competence and experience assist you with your Louisiana criminal case. We have offices in Shreveport and handle criminal defense cases throughout Louisiana.