Our firm has extensive experience in representing individuals challenging their convictions and sentences in the Georgia Court of Appeals and Supreme Court of Georgia. We have also helped clients get their sentences reduced after they have been sentenced.

There are two ways you can appeal to have your conviction overturned. You can file what’s called a “direct appeal” right after your conviction by filing a notice of appeal, a simple document that informs the judge and the clerk that you’re going to appeal the case to a higher court. 

The other option is to file a motion for a new trial, which will let you have a hearing where you can argue that your trial had significant errors or you can present additional evidence that wasn’t considered before. This is the best option if you have new evidence or believe your first lawyer may have been ineffective, as you have a constitutional right to a lawyer who makes the right objections and raises the proper defenses. 

The only way to raise “ineffective assistance of counsel” claims in an appeal is to first file a motion for a new trial. If that’s denied, you can appeal the denial of the motion for a new trial along with all the other errors that occurred during your trial.

Whichever option you choose, a notice of appeal or a motion for new trial, you can also request an appeal bond that allows you to stay out of jail or prison while your case is on appeal. These are rarely granted, so you need an experienced lawyer to make the right arguments. 

There are some serious crimes in Georgia where the judge cannot grant an appeal bond, such as murder, kidnapping, rape, etc. But for most other crimes, especially if the person was out of jail while the case was pending, they may be able to stay out of jail while the appeal is pending–but only if the lawyer files a request for an appeal bond and makes a compelling argument.

In most criminal appeals in Georgia, the case goes from the County Superior Court to the Georgia Court of Appeals. In some cases, like murder cases, the Supreme Court of Georgia has jurisdiction over the appeal. 

Transferring the case from the trial court to the appellate court can take a while, in some cases several months, the court reporter who handled the case in the trial court has to prepare the transcript, a written document about what everybody said during the trial or during the plea, and the clerk of court has to prepare all of the other court documents to send to the Court of Appeals. This package of paperwork is called “the record,” and it will be the main source that the Court of Appeals looks to in figuring out what happened in the trial court.

Once the record gets to the Court of Appeals, then they issue a briefing schedule. They basically tell the lawyers when it’s time to file the paperwork with the court to challenge the conviction. A defendant appealing their conviction or sentence is called an “appellant,” and the appellant’s brief is an important document that is filed first and provides a first impression for the court regarding the relevant facts and legal arguments in the case, including all of the precedents that support reversing the conviction or sentence. The State, as the “appellee,” files a brief in response, and the appellant gets the last word through a “reply brief.”

In certain cases, the Court of Appeals may want to hear oral arguments. That’s where the lawyers show up in front of a panel of judges, usually three judges, and they argue the case. It’s not a new trial. They don’t reconsider the evidence, but it is an opportunity for the Court to hear the legal arguments about the case directly from the lawyers. Oral arguments are more likely to occur in cases involving legally or factually complex issues. 

After oral arguments, the Court makes a decision on the appeal. If the direct appeal is not successful, you do have the option of filing a “petition for certiorari” with the Supreme Court of Georgia or the U.S. Supreme Court. You do not have an automatic right to have the Supreme Court consider your appeal–a petition for certiorari must assert that there are issues in the case that are important as a matter of public policy or that involve important or novel issues of law. 

If your petition for certiorari is denied, you still have one final option. It’s called a habeas petition.

Before filing a direct appeal, defendants have the right to file a motion for new trial. A motion for new trial allows you to go back to the trial court and ask the judge to fix serious mistakes that happened during your trial. You can raise errors like the improper admission of evidence, incorrect jury instructions, or misconduct by the prosecutor. 

Most importantly, a motion for a new trial provides you with an opportunity you don’t have in a direct appeal. In addition to arguing that there were errors during the trial or pretrial proceedings, a motion for new trial hearing presents defendants with an opportunity to present new evidence that the trial court did not have before the verdict.

In most cases, new evidence introduced at a motion for new trial hearing relates to claims of “ineffective assistance of counsel”—meaning the defendant received constitutionally ineffective assistance from their trial lawyer based on the lawyer’s failure to object to critical issues, call key witnesses, or otherwise protect your rights to a fair trial. It is important to note that the lawyer filing your motion for new trial cannot be your trial lawyer, since lawyers are not allowed to raise ineffective assistance claims against themselves.

The process for requesting a new trial starts by filing a written motion within 30 days of the verdict. Once that motion is filed, the judge can hold a hearing where your new lawyer can call witnesses, including your previous lawyer, to testify about what went wrong during the original trial. If you have new evidence—something that wasn’t discovered in time for trial but could make a difference—you can present it during this hearing as well. The judge has the power to grant a new trial if they agree that the errors or new facts warrant it.

If you don’t raise ineffective assistance claims in a motion for new trial, you can’t argue them in a direct appeal. That’s true for any claim that relies on new evidence or information that is not part of the trial record. 

Conversely, if your motion for new trial is denied by the trial court, you can appeal the denial of that motion as well as any other issues that you could have raised before in a direct appeal. In other words, a motion for new trial simply allows you to add additional arguments for your appeal. That’s why, usually, it makes sense to file a motion for new trial rather than go straight to a direct appeal.

Under rare circumstances, an individual can have their sentence reduced even after they have been convicted and sentenced to prison. Under O.C.G.A. § 17-10-1(f), a defendant may ask the sentencing court to correct any sentencing error or reduce their sentence within one year after being sentenced, or within 120 days after their conviction or sentence has been affirmed after an appeal. 

The motion for a sentence reduction must be filed within those periods, though it is not necessary for the court to hear the motion or rule on it within that time frame. The court must provide notice to the prosecutor and give them an opportunity to oppose the motion, which they almost always do.