Federal Criminal
Appeals
“Appellate brief writing has an unusual distinction in the law: More good lawyers do it badly than just about any other aspect of professional practice.”
Appeals are different animals from trials. Trials are all about testimony, documents, and other evidence. Appeals are about legal errors that may have occurred at the trial level. While appellate lawyers might be consulted during the trial process, appeals usually start at the end of a case, when a judgment is entered. The appellate attorney files a notice of appeal and begins his work when the record of appeal—the record of what happened at the trial level—is complete. The key parts of an appellate lawyer's work is finding legal error that occurred at the trial level, and drafting a brief that persuades a three-judge panel that the judgment should be vacated or otherwise modified.
“[E]motional arguments of the type designed to sway a jury generally leave us quite cold, so does the sight of counsel approaching the bench, clutching a script from which counsel does not dare look up.”
Skilled appellate advocacy is like Josh Garrels's The Resistance. The appellate lawyer is the client's sole defense against the institutional authorities who may be wrong. You don’t want to risk your liberty or your future with an inexperienced or unskilled appellate lawyer.
A Few Representative Appeals
We challenged the district court’s imposition of over seventeen discretionary conditions of supervised release. The Fifth Circuit reversed the district court’s judgment, and instructed the district court to strike the conditions that were not orally pronounced at sentencing. United States v. Chavez, ___ F.Appx. ___ (5th Cir. 2022).
Obtained a federal sentencing reversal involving the application of the United States Sentencing Guidelines. Client later received a 50-month reduction in her sentence. United States v. Roddy, __F.Appx.__ (5th Cir. 2020).
Obtained a federal sentencing reversal in the Fifth Circuit involving two issues of first impression. United States v. Eaden, 914 F.3d 1004 (5th Cir. 2019).
Obtained a federal sentencing reversal regarding the Armed Career Criminal Act. Our client’s 180-month sentence was reduced to time served. United States v. Elrod, 730 F. Appx. 239 (5th Cir. 2018).
Obtained reversal of a restitution order $135,283.11, payable to the victims. This was an issue of first impression and the Fifth Circuit held that restitution was limited to the specific temporal scope of the indictment. This decision has likely has cost the Government billions of dollars over the years. United States v. Inman, 411 F.3d 591 (5th Cir. 2005).