Direct Criminal Appeals: What Are the Grounds?

In a criminal trial, if the result is one that you aren’t happy with, you have the opportunity to appeal. An appeal asks an appellate court to find that the trial court made errors—so many errors, or errors so serious, that they affected the outcome of your trial—specifically, that you were convicted when you should not have been convicted.

But what kind of things can you appeal in Louisiana? What kind of mistakes do judges, juries, and trial courts normally make that end up being the subject of criminal appeals? There is no one complete list—but there are some general issues or topics that come up more often than others.

Read on as our Louisiana criminal defense attorney explains more below.

Excluding (or not Excluding) Evidence

Before your criminal trial even starts, your attorney may have made a motion to exclude evidence from trial, often on constitutional grounds. That’s aside from all the evidence presented during the trial, some of which your attorney may have objected to allowing the jury to see or consider.

If a judge allows any such evidence to be used by the State, or heard by a jury, and that evidence should legally have been excluded, that is a violation of your constitutional rights, and you can ask an appellate court to overturn the jury’s guilty verdict on that basis.

Jury Selection

Often, the judge has to make decisions in jury selection that could affect the outcome of the case. A judge may, for example, not allow a juror to be stricken who should have been stricken from the jury pool. The judge may not have allowed your attorney to get rid of jurors that your lawyer didn’t want on the jury. Or, a judge may rule that a jury, during trial, gets instructions on the law, which aren’t completely fair, accurate, or correct.

Attorney Behavior

During the course of your criminal trial, attorneys may, accidentally or purposely, say things that the jury should not have heard. Perhaps an attorney made an improper closing argument, or asked a question of a witness that should not have been allowed to be asked.

If that happened, or if a judge allowed it to happen or disagreed that it should be excluded, that decision is one that can be challenged on appeal.

Jury Decision

Appellate courts are hesitant to second-guess a juror’s decision. But there are times when a jury’s decision is so erroneous, and so unsupported by the evidence at trial, that an appellate court can overturn the jury’s decision.

Fundamental Fairness

There are things that are decided or done even before trial, that ensure the fairness of the legal system. For example, the parties (the state and the Defendant) must share the evidence they intend to use with each other before the trial—trials aren’t about surprising the other side.

Parties must tell each other if they intend to use experts, and who they are. They must allow the other side access to witnesses for deposition.

If something just isn’t fair, prohibiting the other side from fairly preparing for the trial, you can ask an appellate court to overturn your guilty verdict.

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.