Appeals
Washington State Criminal Appellate Lawyer Thomas Weaver
If you have been convicted of a crime in Washington, you have a right to file a notice of appeal within 30 days of the trial and sentencing. To do this, you need an experienced appellate attorney. I handle appeals from all 39 counties in Washington. If you file the notice of appeal outside the 30 days time limit, it may result in you forfeiting forever your right to appeal your conviction.
If you are reading this and hoping to appeal a verdict that is more than 30 days old, don’t lose all hope. You may be able to file a motion for an extension or a Personal Restraint Petition. Don’t delay. You should contact the Law Office of Thomas E. Weaver right away so you don’t lose any further rights that you may have.
During your trial, the judge acts as a “referee” of sorts, making decisions about how your case will proceed. Some of these decisions are routine and mundane, such as deciding how many minutes the attorneys will be allowed to question the jurors before they are selected. Others involve complex questions of law or evidence. But at the end of the case, it all comes down to “Guilty” or “Not Guilty.” If the jury finds you not guilty, then the decision is final and double jeopardy prohibits the prosecutor from ever appealing. If the verdict is guilty, however, then the judge will sentence you and an appeal usually follows.
On appeal, the fundamental question to be decided is very different. Instead of asking whether you are guilty or not guilty, the appeals court is normally concerned with whether you received a fair trial. If yes, then the court will assume the jury reached the correct verdict. Therefore, it becomes important to demonstrate to the Court of Appeals that you did not receive a fair trial.
Remember all those “referee” decisions made by the trial judge? Here is where they become important. Those decisions affected what evidence the jury heard and how they were instructed on the law. Each one of those decisions can now be attached on appeal. They are then reviewed by three judges from the Court of Appeals. If the Court of Appeals concludes that a particular decision was wrong and that it prejudiced the defendant’s right to a fair trial, then it will reverse the verdict and order a new trial. In some rare instances, it may even order the case dismissed. If the issues in the case are considered by the Court of Appeals to be important for future trials, then the decision will be published; the majority of decisions are not published, however.
As your appeals attorney, I will order the entire trial to be transcribed. Then I will read the entire transcript, making notes as I go along. As a Washington appellate lawyer who has handled nearly 200 appeals from throughout the entire state of Washington and has multiple published appellate decisions, I rely on an extensive knowledge of criminal law to assist my clients on appeal.
