Appellate Courts
The U.S. vs. Alejandro Garcia-Lagunas, No. 14-4370 case involving this error rule was decided by the Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in 2016.
What is the Harmless Error Rule?
This Mississippi man was tried and convicted six times for the same crime, sentenced to death during those trials, was subjected to prosecutorial misconduct, and was ultimately released after 23 years behind bars.
Who is Curtis Flowers?
This non-profit organization compared the mandatory and discretionary caseloads of 22 states with both intermediate appellate courts and supreme courts, finding that 72% of the cases heard by the intermediate appellate courts in these states were mandatory appeals; by contrast, 86% of the cases heard by the supreme courts were discretionary appeals.
What is the National Center for State Courts?
This term, which is Latin for “you have the body,” requires the person to whom the writ is directed to either produce the person challenging their confinement or release that person from custody.
What is habeas corpus?
These types of appeals are filed prior to announcement of the final judgment.
What are Interlocutory Appeals?
Prosecutors in a number of jurisdictions, including Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, have implemented or are considering these, which would be charged with identifying cases in which offenders’ sentences were deemed to be excessive or at odds with current sentencing standards.
What are sentence review units?
Whereas appeals to the federal courts of appeals come only from the U.S. district courts, this higher court hears appeals from both U.S. courts of appeals and state supreme courts.
What is the U.S. Supreme Court?
Decisions handed down by this higher court have altered the availability of habeas corpus remedies to state prison and jail inmates, expanding habeas corpus to make it easier for state inmates to challenge their convictions in the federal courts.
Who is the U.S. Supreme Court?
An offender might ask this type of court to set aside their guilty plea, arguing that the plea was not voluntary or was the result of ineffective assistance of counsel.
What is an Appellate Court?
In August of 2019, this man became the first person freed under a recently enacted California law that allows prosecutors to review and revise old sentences.
Who is Kent Joy Williams?
Judge Robert L. McCrary Jr. presided over this August 1961 Florida court case involving an indigent defendant who was denied a court-appointed attorney, citing state law that the only allows appointed attorneys for those charged with capital offenses.
What is Gideon v. Wainwright?
This is considered an indirect appeal because it does not directly challenge the defendant’s conviction but instead challenges the authority of the state to incarcerate the defendant.
What is the writ of habeas corpus?
In this 1949 case, the Supreme Court held that only a few interlocutory appeals are likely to succeed—namely, those that involve "a small class of decisions that determine claims of right separable from, and collateral to, rights asserted in the action, too important to be denied review and too independent of the cause itself to require that appellate consideration be deferred until the whole case is adjudicated.”
What is Cohen v. Beneficial Industrial Loan Corp?
In 1993, this man became the first death row inmate in the United States to be exonerated by DNA tests.
Who is Kirk Noble Bloodsworth?
This clause prevents the state or federal government from prosecuting an individual for the same crime more than once.
What is the double jeopardy clause?
This Act of 1996 significantly altered habeas corpus procedure in the United States.
What is the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA)?
When this is heard, the appellate court will either affirm or reverse the lower court’s decision to convict the defendant
What is an appeal?
This comprehensive package of criminal justice measures was enacted by Congress in 2004 and designed to reduce the risk that innocent persons may be executed.
What is the Innocence Protection Act?
Unlike the U.S. Supreme Court, which is composed of nine judges, including the chief judge, who are appointed for life by the president with the advice and consent of the Senate, this international court is made up of 15 judges who serve 9-year terms and whose terms cannot be renewed or extended.
What is the Italian Constitutional Court?
Also referred to as the Great Writ, it was initially intended to prevent the king of England from locking people up without ever filing charges.
What is the Magna Carta?