According to recent data, wrongful convictions are not just the subject of dramatizations. In 2015, 149 convictions were overturned. In fact, the number of exonerations has risen nearly every year in the past decade. Readers may wonder how wrongful convictions can result in a criminal justice system that requires the prosecution to present evidence of […]
If you’ve applied to a job recently, you might have seen a checkbox on the application inquiring whether you had ever been convicted of a crime. Is that fair? After all, one rationale of incarceration is rehabilitation. After an individual has served a sentence, he or she should have the right to reenter society and […]
Pursuing post-conviction relief or the filing of an appeal requires extensive legal preparation, as some local law students recently discovered. The third-year law students at the University of Tennessee spent nearly a year getting an immigration case ready for appeal. Their work involved preparing the record, drafting the appeal documents, and preparing for oral arguments. […]
A conviction resulting from an unfair or procedurally compromised trial may not be the last word. The sexual assault mistrial involving several former Vanderbilt University football players is a recent example. The players were found guilty after standing trial in a Tennessee court. However, a post-conviction inquiry into the impartiality of the jurors determined that […]
Although a successful outcome is always desired, a criminal defendant should keep in mind that post-conviction options may also be available. The obvious example is filing an appeal with the appropriate state or federal court. But post-conviction DNA analysis may also be available in some circumstances. As its name suggests, post-conviction analysis of DNA evidence […]
Is preparing to file a state or federal appeal akin to being the underdog? As a law firm that has helped many clients with successful appeals, we would caution against assuming that the odds are always stacked against an appellant. Consider the many was that errors might arise in a trial. Procedural and constitutional violations […]
