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Appellate Courts

Chapter 17

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Appellate Courts

• Appellate courts decide far fewer cases than the trial courts.

• Appellate courts subject the trial court’s action to a second look.

• Judges engage in significant policy making.

• En banc: all judges participate in the hearing.

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Purpose of Appeals

• Error correction: appellate courts seek to correct legal errors made in the lower courts.

• Policy formulation: to make a new law and adjust existing law to changing circumstances.

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Scope of Appellate Review

• Basic Principle: Losing party has the right to one appeal.

• May be filed only by parties who have lost in the lower court.

• Prosecutors may not appeal a finding of ‘not guilty.’ – Protection against Double Jeopardy.

• Mandatory v. Discretionary Appeals• Mandatory appellate jurisdiction v. discretionary

appellate jurisdiction.

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Limits on Appeals

• Interlocutory (non-final) orders may challenge a particular point of law, while the case is still active.

• Appeals are restricted to questions of law.– Appellate courts hear no new testimony and consider

no new evidence.

• Appeals are confined to issues properly raised in the trial court.

• The right to appeal is limited to a single appeal.

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Appellate Court Procedures

1. File the notice of appeal

2. Prepare and transmit the court record

3. Brief the case

4. Oral argument

5. Written opinion

6. Disposition

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Disposition

• Affirm: upholding the judgment of the lower court.

• Reversed: setting aside the ruling of the lower court.

• Reversed and remanded: overturning the decision of the lower court and sending the case back down for further proceedings.

• Remanded: sending the case back down to the lower court with instructions for further proceedings.

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“Errors”

• If a case is reversed, remanded or reversed and remanded, the court must have found error by lower trial judge.– If the error is substantial, it is referred to as

reversible error.– If the error is minor, it is referred to as

harmless error.

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Criminal Appeals and the Indigent Defendant

• Griffin v. Illinois: Indigent defendants are entitled to a free court transcript.

• Douglas v. California: Indigent defendants are entitled to a court-appointed lawyer.

• Ross v. Moffitt: Indigent defendants are not entitled to free legal service for discretionary appeals.

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Post-Conviction Review

• Collateral attacks: attempts to avoid the effects of a court decision by bringing a different court proceeding.

• Used after the appeals process has been exhausted.

• Civil in nature. – Filed against the prison warden.

• Habeas corpus: a judicial order to someone holding a person to bring that person immediately before the court.

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Post-Conviction Remedies v. Appeals

• Filed only by those actually in prison.• May raise only constitutional defects, not

technical ones. • Broader than appeals. • May bring up issues not raised during trial, assert

constitutional protections that have developed since the original trial, and contest conditions of confinement.

• Unlimited in state court.

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U.S. Supreme Court

• Hears Constitutional Issues.

• Jurisdiction is discretionary.

• Writ of Certiorari.– Writ of Review.

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Supreme Court Case Load

• Of approximately 92 million lawsuits filed annually, only about 7,000 will be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

• Only about 90 are ever heard by the court.

• Of those, only about 26 are criminal cases.

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Warren Court (1953-1969)

Landmark Civil Liberties cases include:

• Brown v Board of Education: racial segregation.

• Roth v. U.S.: pornography.

• Gideon v Wainwright: right to counsel.

• Mapp v Ohio: exclusionary rule. • Miranda v Arizona: police interrogations.

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Burger Court (1969-1986)

• President Nixon appointed 4 “strict constructionists.”

• Conservative rulings.

• Weakened Miranda v. Arizona.

• Created the good faith exception to Mapp v. Ohio.

• Roe v. Wade: abortion rights.

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Supreme Court Justices in Order of Seniority

Insert exhibit 17-4 on page 415 here.

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