Question on Appeals

[Nicole]

I'm doing a term paper for school on:
"Should the death sentence be carried out within a specified time thus limiting a persons right to appeal a conviction"
I was wondering if there is any law that limits a person to a certain amount of time to appeal there conviction?TEXT

[Anony+]

Most states have time limits as to when a notice of appeal may be filed in all cases. Note that I'm only talking about direct appeals from the original conviction. In death penalty cases, I would imagine that most states have automatic appeals, so even if the attorneys missed the time for filing their notice of appeal, it would be overlooked by the appellate court.

I would venture to guess that at the next stage of appeal, often times called state habeas corpus, some states have time limits. But you'd have to do research on that.

The final stage, federal habeas corpus, must be brought within a year of the completion of the state direct appeal, with that one year being tolled during the pendency of a properly filed state habeas application. So there actually is a time limit to federal appeals.

HTH.

Anony+

[Deleted]

Didn't the Congress pass some Federal Law on limiting the appeals in Federal Courts. That is one reason, most Federal sentences are supposed to be carried out in about 5 yrs.

However, this is still to long between the crime, the trial, the sentencings, the appeals, and the execution.

You read about the British trails and executions before they abolished the DP and many were carried on a Tuesday after 3 clear Sundays from their sentencing. (Ruth Ellis, etc - www.richard.clark32.btinternet.co.uk/)

I don't advocate 3 weeks, but it should be limited to two years. Also, one reason some initial appeals take a long time is waiting for the trial transcript. If all trials were video taped and placed on a CD, then the copies can be made in one day and given to the defense team to begin the appealate process. The defense can highlight the erroonous ruling, prepare the written augruments. The initial appeal should include all issues including improper counsel, sleeping counsel, etc and not bring this one up after 20 yrs.

[californian]

ltcretired said:

Didn't the Congress pass some Federal Law on limiting the appeals in Federal Courts. That is one reason, most Federal sentences are supposed to be carried out in about 5 yrs.

However, this is still to long between the crime, the trial, the sentencings, the appeals, and the execution.

You read about the British trails and executions before they abolished the DP and many were carried on a Tuesday after 3 clear Sundays from their sentencing. (Ruth Ellis, etc - www.richard.clark32.btinternet.co.uk/)

I don't advocate 3 weeks, but it should be limited to two years. Also, one reason some initial appeals take a long time is waiting for the trial transcript. If all trials were video taped and placed on a CD, then the copies can be made in one day and given to the defense team to begin the appealate process. The defense can highlight the erroonous ruling, prepare the written augruments. The initial appeal should include all issues including improper counsel, sleeping counsel, etc and not bring this one up after 20 yrs.

As someone who has worked as a CSR (Court Reporter) I oppose videotaped transcripts. If there are technical faults while recording, the record is lost. Also, my ears are a hell of a lot better than a microphone.

Federal DPs take less time because there are no state issues to litigate first before jumping into federal court.

[Deleted]

From the time someone is sentenced to death in state court, it could take as little as 4 years to as many as 9-10 years. Here is a rough outline of that appeal process.

For a state DP conviction, defendant has 15-45 days typically to file his notice of appeal depending on the state. The trial court has 60-90 days to prepare the record on appeal. The defendant, now appellant, has 30-45 days to prepare his opening brief, longer if his attorney requests extensions of time. The state then has a similar amount of time to file their brief and then the appellant gets another 30 days or so to file his reply to the State's opening brief. Then the case is set for oral argument and after that, it is taken under advisement by the court and can take up to 2 years to issue a decision. All said and done, about 3 years for the first direct appeal.

If the state has an intermediate appellate court, then the next step is another appeal to the state supreme court which could take about another 2 years.

After that, the defendant has 90 days to petition the US supreme court for a 'writ of certiorari.' These are rarely granted by the USSC. This process adds on another 6 months.

Next, the DR inmate can seek what is called state habeas or state post conviction relief. Depending on the state, this process--including any state or USSC petitions for review (appeals) of the denial of habeas/post conviction relief--will consume another 6 months to 2 years of time.

Then the matter can move into federal court on a petition for writ of habeas corpus. It takes about 1-2 years to move a state DP case through federal district court from start to finish.

Next, the inmate can appeal to the circuit court of appeals and from the circuit court to the USSC--all told adding on another 1-2 years.

Federal law changed in 1996 making it so a DR inmate only gets one shot at filing for federal habeas relief from the federal courts. It used to be they could file as many petitions as they could think up new/different issues to put in those petitions. That is not true anymore.

It seems like a long time, but I will be the first to say that a person convicted and sentenced to die should have the right to have that death sentence reviewed by an appellate court. If there was something unconstitutional about his trial, it needs to be brought out and examined so that when we do execute a person, there is no question about the appropriateness of the process which imposed the 'ultimate' punishment. ('Ultimate' as in, death is the most severe penalty allowed for by your state's laws to punish criminal conduct.)

[Deleted]

Why is it that DP inmates after 20-25 yrs still file habeas corpus writs even now challenging for example the LI chemicals?

Again, they should have to consolidate all into a one shot deal.

[californian]

ltcretired said:

Why is it that DP inmates after 20-25 yrs still file habeas corpus writs even now challenging for example the LI chemicals?

Again, they should have to consolidate all into a one shot deal.

Don't be so bloodthirsty, colonel. Let the appeals process work. We have them locked up in a 9x12 cell with a gurney as the end.

I mean, isn't two decades or so of that really a worse punishment than two years?

[Deleted]

Why have to pay for guarding a guilty murderer for 20-25 yrs in CA at $190,000 per year. CA is short of funds, reduce the overhead. Also, a rope can be reused many times over.

[Deleted]

ltcretired said:

Why is it that DP inmates after 20-25 yrs still file habeas corpus writs even now challenging for example the LI chemicals?

Again, they should have to consolidate all into a one shot deal.

If they were convicted prior to 1996, or pre-AEDPA (Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Amendment to 28 USC §2254), then they don't fall within the rules about successive §2254 habeas pleas attacking their state court conviction or sentence.

However, it sounds like what you are talking about with the habeas action to challenge LI chemicals (and/or any action that challenges "conditions of confinement"), that would fall under §1983 civil rights actions and there are not the same limitations on filing those types of actions. They are more like regular civil actions because they do not attack the inmate's conviction or sentence like is done through a §2254 habeas action.