There are several ways you can challenge a criminal conviction in Louisiana:

• You can file a motion for new trial if there’s newly discovered evidence in your case.
• You can file an appeal to a louisiana appeals court challenging whether there were legal errors that prevented you from receiving a fair trial.
• You can file a post-conviction relief application in state court.
• You can file a habeas petition in federal court.
• You can file a motion to correct an illegal sentence.

Each of the above requires that you comply with certain procedures and deadlines that can be complex and difficult to navigate. It is important to consult with an experienced criminal defense attorney for your specific case as each case is different and requires a specific assessment of the particular facts at issue.

An appeal is filed after a person has been convicted and sentenced. Generally, you have thirty (30) days from sentencing to file a notice/motion for appeal in Louisiana state court. In federal court, you generally have fourteen (14) days to file a notice of criminal appeal.

• If you want to challenge a particular issue in a case before there’s been a conviction and sentencing, you would need to file a writ of supervisory review with the appropriate appellate court if you’re in state court in Louisiana. In federal court, you would file an interlocutory appeal.
• Not all issues can be reviewed under supervisory writ or an interlocutory appeal. Consult an experienced criminal appeals attorney about your specific case to find out if, when, and how you can appeal a ruling you’d like to challenge.

Almost any legal or factual error that you think was committed in your case at or before your trial can, in theory, be raised on appeal. However, most often, the most likely issues to be considered and granted relief on appeal are errors of law (as opposed to errors of fact). Errors of law are errors that a judge made in your case – i.e. whether certain rulings that the judge made were correct. For example, the decision not to grant a motion to suppress or a decision to permit certain testimony over the objection of defense counsel are potential errors of law.

Conversely, errors of fact, i.e. decisions by the jury about what happened in the case, can also be overturned, but such instances are rare. An example of an alleged error fact would be to say that there was no evidence to show that the defendant intended to distribute to others the small amount of drugs found on his person.

Generally, yes, you have to serve your sentence while on appeal. However, there are certain instances when the imposition of a sentence can be put on hold pending an appeal. This sometimes occurs when a sentence is short enough and the likelihood of reversal of appeal is substantial enough that there is a risk that the person could serve their full sentence while before receiving a decision on their appeal.

There are several basic, common steps in every appeal. They are as follows:

• Timely file the notice/motion for appeal.
• Await composition of the appellate record and briefing schedule by the appeals court.
• File your appeals brief and file a request for oral argument.
• Receive the prosecution’s brief in response.
• File a reply to the prosecution’s brief.
• Argue at oral argument hearing (if granted).
• Await written ruling from the appeals court.

If you win your appeal, the State/Government may seek to have the appeals court reversed at the supreme court. In that case, the appeals process would continue to the higher court with the State/Government filing the initial brief.

If the State/Government chooses not to seek review of the appellate court’s decision, what happens next depends on what relief the appeals court granted you. If they grant you an acquittal, your case is over. If they simply vacate your conviction and remand your case to the district court, you may face a new trial. The prosecution will then have to decide whether they want to try you again.

If you lose your appeal, you will likely want to seek review of the appellate court’s decision with the next highest court, which in Louisiana is the Louisiana Supreme Court. On the federal level, you could seek review before the U.S. Supreme Court but the reject most applications for writ of certiorari and accept only a tiny fraction of the cases that seek their review.

In some rare instances, you could also waive your right to seek an appeal to the Louisiana Supreme Court and instead file a post-conviction relief application.

Post-conviction relief is the third major phase of a criminal case (if unsuccessful at trial and on appeal) in Louisiana. It is also referred to as habeas corpus on the federal level and in some other states. There are confusing and unforgiving timelines when it comes to post-conviction relief applications in Louisiana.

Post-conviction relief or habeas corpus is designed to be a relief of last resort and is generally not meant to address issues already litigated at trial or on appeal. Instead post-conviction relief is meant to address constitutional violations that have not previously been raised but that demonstrate that you did not receive a fair trial or were wrongly convicted.

Post-conviction relief claims are often based on newly discovered evidence that was not available or obtainable through reasonable due diligence at trial. This includes things like:

• New DNA evidence or other forensic evidence not introduced at trial.
• Evidence that the prosecutor failed to hand over exculpatory evidence.
• New witness affidavits of people admitting that they lied at trial or otherwise have new relevant information that was not previously available.
• New evidence that the defendant lacked the mental capacity to stand trial.

The other main type of post-conviction relief claims is ineffective assistance of counsel claims where it can be shown that your trial attorney was grossly incompetent. This type of claim requires a detailed review of the record of your case and often includes the hiring of an investigator and experts to support your claims.

Yes, new evidence can be added in post-conviction proceeding. The general requirement for new evidence in a post-conviction proceeding is that the evidence is newly discovered and was not available during trial despite the due diligence of trial counsel.

Technically, you can’t “appeal” a post-conviction judgment but you can get review and relief from an appeals court and the Louisiana Supreme Court by filing for a writ of supervisory review (instead of filing an appeal). Put another way, a post-conviction judgment can be reviewed and then affirmed or overturned by a Louisiana State Appeals court under the court’s supervisory writ jurisdiction.

It depends on what errors you want to challenge in your case and how soon you want relief. If it’s a legal error that you’re seeking to challenge and you want relief right away, an appeal is better because you’ll get relief quicker and have a higher likelihood of getting relief for a common legal error in an appeal.

But if there is newly discovered evidence or fundamental, constitutional issues to the process of your trial itself (as opposed to the specific legal rulings by the judge), then a post-conviction relief application may be better.  It truly depends on the specific facts of your case.

If you’ve received any kind of notice of an investigation or grand jury proceeding, you need to consult with an experienced grand jury subpoena attorney immediately. How and when you respond to such a notice could have grave consequences for you.

Before starting my own law firm, I spent five years in the white collar section at Jones Walker LLP. There I often worked on federal and state cases that involved the grand jury process. In my experience, some of the most important work on a case takes place during this initial phase.

I can help you in preparing for a response to a grand jury subpoena or target letter in the following ways:

• Confirm whether you’re a target, subject, or witness.
• Assess your overall risk of prosecution and develop a defense and/or cooperation strategy.
• Help you decide whether to appear for a voluntary interview with the Government.
• Negotiate with the prosecution a potential immunity deal in exchange for your testimony.
• Help you prepare for any information that you give.
• Prevent you from incriminating yourself or committing perjury.

If you’ve received a letter and/or a grand jury subpoena that says you’re a “target,” it means you will likely be indicted. According to the United States Attorney’s Manual, a target “is a person as to whom the prosecutor or the grand jury has substantial evidence linking him or her to the commission of a crime and who, in the judgment of the prosecutor, is a putative defendant.” In most cases, you will not want to testify to the grand jury.

If you’ve been named a “Subject” in a Grand Jury Subpoena or Letter, then you are somewhere in between a target and simply a witness – in other words, the prosecutor has not made up its mind yet on whether they want to charge you. That means deciding how and when to respond to a grand jury subpoena is critical. You will want to convince the Government that you did not commit any crimes. But you also need to be careful about the Government using your statements and responses against you should they decide to later charge you.

If you’ve received a letter and/or a grand jury subpoena that says you’re a “target,” it means you will likely be indicted. According to the United States Attorney’s Manual, a target “is a person as to whom the prosecutor or the grand jury has substantial evidence linking him or her to the commission of a crime and who, in the judgment of the prosecutor, is a putative defendant.” In most cases, you will not want to testify to the grand jury.

If you’ve been named a “Subject” in a Grand Jury Subpoena or Letter, then you are somewhere in between a target and simply a witness – in other words, the prosecutor has not made up its mind yet on whether they want to charge you. That means deciding how and when to respond to a grand jury subpoena is critical. You will want to convince the Government that you did not commit any crimes. But you also need to be careful about the Government using your statements and responses against you should they decide to later charge you.

It is critical to consult with an experienced internal investigations attorney BEFORE you are interviewed.  Even if you think you have done nothing wrong or you may just be a witness, it is essential to consult with an internal investigations attorney. You have a right to consult with an attorney during an internal investigation, and you also have the right to have an attorney present with you during an internal investigation interview.

I’ve been on both sides of the table – I’ve represented large multi-national companies that were conducting internal investigations, and I’ve also represented individuals being questioned by their company. I have the knowledge and experience to make sure your rights are protected. I also have extensive knowledge of how company policies can interact with the laws that may affect you.

If you work offshore, you need to be aware of environmental crimes, which are defined as when a person or company violates certain environmental laws that are put into place to protect the environment. Some common examples of environmental include:

• Illegal dumping of waste (magic pipe cases).
• Clean Water Act violations.
• Water or air pollution.
• Storage violations.
• Improper transport of hazardous materials.
• Destroying the habitat of an endangered or threatened species.

In Louisiana, these types of crimes are most commonly prosecuted against people working in the oil and gas, chemical, and shipping/maritime industries. There are many overlapping statutes and regulations that impose different types of liability, both civil and criminal, on people and companies working offshore. In addition, there are also multiple government agencies that investigate and bring charges against you for an environmental crime.

Defending yourself against even the suspicion of an environmental crime is incredibly complex and requires the right lawyer to handle your case. I’ve represented employees, supervisors, and companies in a variety of different environmental crime investigations. I can guide you through the process and be your advocate every step of the way. How you handle that first request to speak about an incident can decide your fate – both in your job and, potentially, in your freedom.

I handle and have experience defending all types of criminal defense cases, including white-collar cases, criminal appeals, drug cases, violent crime, and sex crimes.

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