Re: Wrongly convicted - right to appeal?
Walter Hinteler wrote:How is such handled generally, in state and federal law, resp. at county/municipal courts?
The vast majority of criminal cases in the US are heard in state courts. Most states have an intermediate appellate court and all states have a supreme court (although it's not always called "supreme"). A criminal appeal would, therefore, typically go from the trial court to the appellate court to the supreme court. Once a defendant's state court appeals have been exhausted, he might be able to file a
habeas corpus petition in federal court, asserting that some federal right (almost always under the fourteenth amendment) has been violated. The federal system also has three levels: district (trial) courts, circuit (appellate) courts, and the supreme court. So a criminal appeal can go all the way to the top of the state judicial system, and then go all the way to the top of the federal judicial system. That's what happens with a lot of death penalty appeals.
With specific reference to appeals based on the actual innocence of a defendant, courts are usually reluctant to hear any evidence of innocence if it wasn't introduced in the original trial. Indeed, in
Herrera v. Collins, the supreme court suggested that it would not be cruel and unusual punishment to execute a prisoner who is actually innocent of the crime of which he was convicted.
Walter Hinteler wrote:(Since we have only
one criminal law in Germany, we've got only one Criminal Procedure Code [Strafprozeßordnung, StPO].
There,
Part Four regulates the reopenings of a proceeding. [NB: a verdict of not guilty can't be changed at all.])
A not guilty verdict can't be challenged on appeal in the US either.
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