Federal Appeals

If you were convicted of an offense but believe the conviction was the result of an error, you may appeal your conviction. You may also appeal your sentence. Appealing your conviction and/or sentence is the process of asking a higher court to review your case and determine whether your conviction and/or sentence should be upheld. There are two ways for your case to reach the federal appeals process:

1. You were convicted of a federal criminal offense
2. You were convicted of a State offense but one or more of the errors in your cases involves a federal issue.

Federal Criminal Cases

A federal case begins in a District Court. California is divided into four Federal districts: Northern District, Southern District, Central District, and Eastern District. If you choose to appeal your conviction and/or sentence from one of the District Courts, it will go to the United States Court of Appeals. The United States Court of Appeals is divided into Eleven Circuits. California is part of the Ninth Circuit. If you are appealing your case from one of the four districts in California, your case will therefore go to the Ninth Circuit. After a decision from the United States Court of Appeals, you have the opportunity to appeal your case once more to the United States Supreme Court. The United States Supreme Court is the highest court in the country.

Cases Involving Federal Issues

A case can also end up in the federal appellate process if it is a State case that involves federal issues. When you are at both the trial and appellate stage of your case at the State level, you want to make sure that your attorney is aware of any Federal issues that could be used to allow your conviction to be appealed through the Federal appellate process. Federal issues commonly involve violations of your Constitutional rights. Before beginning the Federal appellate process on a State conviction, all attempts at remedies in the State courts must have already been exhausted. Once the possible State remedies have been exhausted, a habeas petition is filed in Federal district court to initiate the Federal appellate process. Generally, for non death penalty cases, you have one year from the final review of your case in State court to file this petition.