Criminal Appeals Lawyer in Texas

In most cases, waiving your right to an appeal is a condition of accepting a plea agreement or plea bargain. However, you might still be able to file an appeal if you filed a written motion that was denied, such as a suppression motion, you reserved the right to appeal, or your appeal turns on the question of whether the lower court had jurisdiction to handle your case.

Under Texas law, you must file a notice of appeal no later than 30 days after your sentence. You may be barred from filing an appeal if you miss this deadline. This deadline is why it is vital to work with an experienced criminal defense appeals lawyer in Texas.

This question has no general answer. Each case is different. Many factors can determine how long it takes to resolve an appeal in a criminal case in Texas. The length of time required for your case will depend on the nature of the charges you faced at the trial level, what kind of issues you are raising on appeal, and how busy the court’s schedule is when you file your appeal. Typically, it can take several months and quite possibly more than a year.

Just because you win your appeal, it doesn’t mean your conviction is automatically erased. For example, if the appeals court determines that certain evidence in your case was inadmissible, it might order the lower court to conduct a new trial without including that evidence. Of course, in light of the error that led to the reversal of your conviction, the prosecution may decide it does not have enough remaining evidence to obtain a conviction. So, it may decide to drop its case against you. In that situation, you would no longer face prosecution. Otherwise, you might enter a more favorable plea bargain or choose a retrial.

Once the appellate court has decided, you may ask for a rehearing. However, this motion is almost never granted. You also have the right to file a Petition for Discretionary Review with the Court of Criminal Appeals, asking it to hear your case.

If you lose at the Court of Criminal Appeals, the next step may be to file a Petition for Writ of Certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court. However, these petitions are granted in extremely rare cases. The U.S. Supreme Court typically restricts its docket to cases that involve unsettled areas of law, conflicting opinions from various federal courts, or issues with wide-ranging implications for constitutional rights. An experienced Texas criminal appeal lawyer can help explain the options available to you in your case.

The Texas criminal justice system has 14 appeals courts. Each of these courts has a panel of judges with at least three judges presiding over every appellate case. In some instances, more than three judges will oversee an appeals case.

You are entitled to be released on bond pending your state court appeal if your sentence was less than 10 years imprisonment. However, for convictions for certain violent offenses, you are not entitled to a bond pending appeal regardless of the sentence. Whether the court agrees to release you on bond while your appeal is pending depends on the seriousness of the crimes involved in your conviction. As you might expect, the more serious the crime, the less likely the court is to permit you to remain free on bond pending your appeal.