The Status of Adnan's Appeals & the Criminal Appeals Process in the Courts of the United States

Over the past few weeks, I’ve noted some confusion––by redditors both ‘foreign and domestic’––about the U.S. appeals process and the procedural arc of the American criminal court system.

I’m in my third and final year of law school, and I have experience working in post-conviction relief and in the federal courts.

So I thought I’d offer this brief overview on the criminal appeals process. We could go down the rabbit-hole on each one of these stages, but I’ll try to keep it as simple and straightforward as possible so that those with no legal experience can understand the scope and purpose of each stage of the process:

ROUND ONE: Original Criminal Trial & “Direct Appeals” Process

Stage # 1: Baltimore City Circuit Court [state trial court]

• This is the original trial to determine Adnan’s guilt/innocence re the charges brought.

• It’s a jury trial, so the jury determines his guilt/innocence.

• Upon conviction, the trial is followed by a “sentencing hearing,” where further testimony/arguments are taken/made about how the judge should sentence the defendant. The judge, not the jury, decides the sentence.

• Date for Adnan: January/February 2000 / Sentenced in June 2000

Stage # 2: Maryland Court of Special Appeals [state appeals/intermediate court] [right to appeal]

• This is the first step in the direct appeals process.

• In a direct appeal, the defendant challenges the rulings of the trial court/judge in the original trial.

• The right to appeal is automatic, and the Maryland Court of Special Appeals has to hear your argument.

• This is not a trial court – there are no witnesses, no new evidence is taken, and there is no jury.

• Instead, you brief the court (in writing) and then make short oral arguments before a panel of three judges who decide the outcome of the appeal.

• The appeals briefs floating around the internet re Adnan’s case are from this stage.

• You’ll notice those briefs are not about the competence of his trial attorney.

• Instead, the direct appeal arguments instead focus on things like “prosecutorial misconduct,” “suppression of evidence,” and “trial court error.”

• Date for Adnan: Briefed February 2002 / Ruling: mid-2002

• (Adnan clearly lost this appeal, as no new trial was ordered).

Stage # 3: Maryland Court of Appeals [state supreme court of last resort] [discretionary docket]

• This is the second step in the direct appeals process.

• If you lose in the Court of Special Appeals, you can petition the Maryland Court of Appeals to hear your case.

• However, the MCA has a discretionary docket, meaning they get to choose what cases they hear.

• It is likely that Adnan did appeal; if he did, it would have been shortly after the MCSA ruled against him.

• Date for Adnan: mid/late 2002, based on filing date requirements.

Stage # 4: United States Supreme Court [federal supreme court of last resort] [discretionary docket]

• This is the last step in the direct appeals process.

• If the Maryland high court rules against you or refuses to hear your claim, you can petition for the SCOTUS to hear your case.

• However, like the MCA, the U.S. Supreme Court has a discretionary docket, meaning they get to choose what cases they hear.

• From federal public records, it doesn’t look like Adnan appealed to the Supreme Court.

• If he did, it would have been in late 2002/early 2003, based on filing date requirements.

ROUND TWO: State Post-Conviction Relief (sometimes a.k.a. State habeas corpus Proceedings)

Not all states provide for post-conviction relief. Maryland, however, does.

Stage # 5: Baltimore City Circuit Court [state trial court]

• This is the first step in the post-conviction relief appeals process.

• Here, the convicted is entitled to a lawyer and a hearing in the circuit court where the he was convicted.

• At this stage, unlike during the direct appeals process, the defendant makes a broader legal argument re how his rights were deprived.

• The most common claim at this stage is ineffective assistance of counsel at trial, though you can make other arguments not made on direct appeal, like improper sentencing or prosecutorial misconduct, etc.

• Date for Adnan: Under the Uniform Post Conviction Procedure Act (Maryland Code of Criminal Procedure §7-103, a petition must be filed in the circuit court where the defendant was convicted within 10 years from the date of sentencing. For Adnan, this would have had to have been filed by February 2010.

Stage # 6: Maryland Court of Special Appeals [state appeals/intermediate court] [right to appeal]

• Same as stage #2 above, but here focused on the post-conviction claims instead of the direct appeal claims.

• This seems to be the stage in which Adnan’s case remains.

• As the Baltimore Sun just reported earlier this week, “The Maryland attorney general’s office and state prosecutors were granted an extension last week [by the MCSA] to offer opinions on whether Adnan Syed received effective legal counsel when he was convicted of first-degree murder in the 1999 killing of ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee.”

Stage # 7: Maryland Court of Appeals [state supreme court of last resort] [discretionary docket]

• Same as stage #3 above.

• No guarantee that the MCA will hear your post-conviction relief appeal.

• Cannot petition to the U.S. Supreme Court if the MCA rejects your claim or petition to hear the appeal.

• Instead, you move on to federal habeas proceedings.

ROUND THREE: Federal habeas corpus Proceedings

In short, habeas corpus is a kind of petition that you can file in federal court to claim that your imprisonment violates federal law. This is available for both state prisoners and federal prisoners, but the processes are a bit different. Federal habeas jurisprudence is ever-evolving and complex, so I won’t go into great detail here. Know, however, that it is much more difficult for state prisoners to win in federal court b/c federal habeas laws require great deference to the state court. Thus, even if the federal court disagrees with the outcome of a state court ruling, it may uphold the state court as long as the state court’s ruling wasn’t unreasonable under the law.

Stage # 8: United Stated District Court of Maryland [federal trial court]

• This is the first stage in a federal habeas appeal.

• It is, in the most basic sense, a trial about the original trial and the entire appellate process thus far.

• The defendant is seeking to prove that his arrest, trial, sentence, etc. violated some federal statute, treaty, or the federal Constitution.

• Evidence can be taken here; and witnesses can be called.

• This is a bench trial, not a jury trial. The federal district judge decides the merits of the prisoner’s argument.

Stage # 9: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit [federal appeals/intermediate court] [right to appeal]

• This is the second stage in a federal habeas appeal.

• If the prisoner defendant loses his habeas petition in the district court, he has the right (upon timely filing) to appeal to the federal appellate court (a.k.a. “federal circuit court”).

• Like in the state appellate courts below, the defendant-appellant will brief his argument (in writing) and likely make an oral argument before a panel of three appellate judges.

• If the defendant loses, he can petition this same court for a rehearing or a rehearing en banc (wherein all of judges in the circuit (usually between 10-15) hear new oral arguments and read new briefs, and then take a full vote instead of a three-person vote).

Stage # 10: United States Supreme Court [federal supreme court of last resort] [discretionary docket]

• The third step in a federal habeas appeal, and the last step in the entire appeals process.

• Like before, there is no guarantee that the U.S. Supreme Court will take your case, as it has a discretionary docket.

• You must first brief the court (in a petition for certiorari) as to why it should accept your case.

• If the court then agrees to hear your case, you must then brief the court as to why you should win on the merits. There are also oral arguments taken in the case.

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I hope this helps clarify any confusion and answer some questions. I will try to answer any questions that arise on this thread if I can and if I have the time.

• Edited for bullet-point clarity.