Denver criminal defense lawyer / federal habeas corpus

So this has been sort of a series of posts on the Denver criminal defense lawyer blog. First I talked about post-conviction relief, then direct appeals, then petitioning for review from the Supreme Courts of both Colorado and the United States. If you were scoring at home, this we've already had seven courts have the case under their umbrella. The trial court initially held the jury trial. The state court of appeals, the state supreme court, and possibly the United States Supreme Court (though probably not) all looked at it on direct appeal. After that, there was a post-conviction relief trial, which can also be appealed all the way to the state supreme court. Although it probably has been five years since the initial conviction as the case worked its way through the courts, the defendant (I'll still call him the defendant even though he was convicted long ago for sake of clarity) has one more remedy: federal habeas corpus.

Under 28 U.S.C. section 2254, a prisoner convicted of a crime in state court may challenge his detention in the United States district court where he is incarcerated. Although most folks think this just another appeal, there are a couple of distinctions and requirements that make habeas corpus a bit different. First, the defendant has to be incarcerated. Habeas corpus is a remedy for imprisonment, not anything else, so if you are looking to get an expungement, hire a lawyer for that and go to state court. Second, the claims brought in federal court must have also been brought in state court at some time or another. That means if your Denver criminal defense lawyer didn't object to something, then that wasn't raised at post-conviction relief in the state court, the federal court will decline to hear it. Finally, and this should make sense because it's federal court, the claims have to arise under the United States Constitution. State law claims can be raised in state post-conviction or state habeas.

If you meet all these requirements, it's possible to get the conviction thrown out in federal court. Of course, the defendant still needs to actually have a good case and needs a lawyer who will argue it well. Most of the mistakes are caught on direct appeal and at post-conviction, but occasionally the state and the courts really, really screw up, or do something really bad. The hardest part about trying to win at habeas is that since the defendant has already been proven guilty. The defendant now has the burden of proving the state or his lawyer messed up by a preponderance of the evidence. Habeas is hard to win, though in the right case it can be a very powerful weapon.

Stay tuned to the Denver criminal defense lawyer blog for a series of posts on the federal process.