Appeals and Post-Conviction Relief

If you have been convicted of a crime you can challenge the conviction through an appeal or post-conviction relief. These processes differ depending on whether your case was heard by New Jersey’s state court system or a federal court. Clifford E. Lazzaro brings more than 30 years of experience in evaluating the options available in your case as well as the likelihood of success.

Appeal Process in Federal and State Cases

An appeal is a direct challenge to a judge or jury’s ruling in a case. There are many factors that are grounds for an appeal. Appeals are generally based on:

• Procedural problems. Judges are responsible for deciding what instructions and legal concepts juries are allowed to hear. These decisions play a great part on the outcome of any trial. We challenge a judge’s decisions when they had a prejudicial effect.
• Evidentiary issues. When a judge improperly allows or excludes evidence, there may be grounds to appeal your case.
• Questions of law. Sometimes a judge interprets a law incorrectly. In other cases, a judge may have correctly applied a law that we believe is unconstitutional. In these cases, an appeal lets us put those decisions in front of a higher authority.
• Ineffective assistance of counsel. The ineffectiveness of trial counsel can serve as a basis for appeal.

Clifford E. Lazzaro successfully appealed his client’s conviction on one count of sexual contact and one count of child abuse on the grounds that the admission in evidence at the trial of a writing as an “excited utterance” under New Jersey Rule of Evidence 803(c)(2) as a hearsay exception was reversible error. In its Decision reversing the conviction, the Appellate Division addressed an issue not previously resolved in its reported jurisprudence. State v. A.C.

Appeal Process in Municipal Court-Grounds for Filing an Appeal of a Municipal Court Decision

• An appeal for post-conviction relief or a judgment of a municipal court can be based on any of the following grounds: (1) substantial denial of your rights under the Constitution of the United States or the Constitution or laws of New Jersey; (2) lack of jurisdiction of the court to impose the judgment or sentence rendered by the judge; (3) imposition of a sentence or fine in excess of what the law allows; or (4) any ground available as a basis for attack on a conviction under New Jersey common law or statutory law.

Factors To Be Considered on an Appeal may include:

• Did the judge comply with the rules concerning acceptance of your guilty pleas?
• Did you as a defendant understand the consequences of your plea?
• If you are not a US citizen, were you advised of the immigration consequences of your guilty plea?
• Did the court obtain a factual basis from you in support of the guilty plea?
• Were you advised of your right to appeal either the conviction or the sentence?
• Did you as a defendant proceed pro se (meaning represent yourself), did you knowingly and intelligently waive your right to counsel?
• Did you receive ineffective assistance of counsel in your case?
• Did your lawyer provide you with discovery and review in detail the discovery with you?
• Did your lawyer go over trial strategy with you?
• If you speak a foreign language, was an interpreter present during the court proceeding and translate what was said so that you could understand the proceedings?

Contact Clifford E. Lazzaro, P.C. to discuss an appeal at the Municipal Court level.

Post-Conviction Relief as an Alternative to an Appeal

Both New Jersey and federal courts allow you to attack the validity of your conviction through a motion for post-conviction relief (PCR). The purpose of Post-Conviction Relief is to challenge your conviction, or, sometimes, your sentence. You may file for this relief in order to demonstrate that you were wrongfully convicted and that your constitutional rights were violated. The violation could have occurred at any phase of the criminal proceeding against you, including during the investigation, arrest, pre-trial, plea hearing, trial or sentencing.

Grounds for filing a PCR include a significant denial of a constitutional right either under the federal constitution or the constitution or statutes of New Jersey.

Under the court rules of New Jersey, there are five general categories under which courts grant post-conviction relief:

• The defendant suffered a substantial deprivation of his or her state or federal constitutional rights, including a violation of procedural or substantive due process.
• The trial court lacked jurisdiction to impose a judgment of conviction upon the defendant.
• The sentence imposed exceeded or was otherwise not in accordance with the sentences authorized by law.
• Trial counsel was ineffective for failing to file a direct appeal of the judgment of conviction upon the defendant’s timely request.
• Any other ground previously recognized for relief under a petition of habeas corpus or another statutory or common law remedy from conviction.

The Submission of an Excellent Brief is Essential to Effective Appellate or PCR Practice

A well written brief is critical to success. In fact, appellate and PCR briefs are subject to intense scrutiny by the judges who will decide the case. As one appellate court explained, appellate work is “not the recycling of trial briefs” but instead “entails rigorous original work in its own right” and “offers counsel probably their best opportunity to craft work of original, professional, and, on occasion, literary value.”

Experienced appellate and PCR advocates have emphasized the importance of winnowing out weaker arguments and focusing on one central issue if possible, or at most on a few key issues. Selecting the most promising issues for review has assumed a greater importance in an era when the time for oral argument is strictly limited in most courts and when page limits on briefs are widely imposed.

Contact an Experienced Monmouth County, Middlesex County, Mercer County, Essex County, Bergen County, Hudson County, Union County, Somerset County, Ocean County Appellate and PCR Attorney

If you have already been convicted of a crime, it is essential that you exercise your rights to appeal your conviction immediately. Clifford E. Lazzaro P.C. appeals or challenges cases and verdicts based on ineffective assistance of counsel, new evidence or constitutional challenges. Contact Clifford E. Lazzaro P.C. for an evaluation of your case at (732) 866-1600.