What to Do After Losing Your Federal Direct Appeal | 2255 Motions & Post-Conviction Relief Explained

Oftentimes clients want to know what they do next after they lose their direct appeal. And this is if they lose a direct appeal in the South Carolina Court of Appeals.

So at that point, there's a decision that somebody needs to make.

They can either sort of end the direct appeal and go into post-conviction relief, or they can seek a writ of certiorari from the South Carolina Supreme Court. So, there are a lot of decisions that kind of need to be made at this particular point, and it's really going to depend on the unique circumstances of your case. So, for example, if the reason why you believe you were convicted was because you received ineffective assistance of counsel or because you think the prosecutor committed misconduct, or you think there was a problem with, like, the juror. Those are the kind of claims that you want to raise in a post-conviction relief application. You've got 1 year from the date that you lose your direct appeal to go down that road. You may decide to go up to the South Carolina Supreme Court and file what's called a petition for writ of certiorari, but it's not for every case. There's a statute right on point that sort of details exactly what the grounds for seeking cert are. But generally, they're going to be whether or not your case raises a novel issue of law, whether the Court of Appeals opinion already is in conflict with the South Carolina Supreme Court opinion, whether one of the judges in the Court of Appeals issued a dissent. In your case, or whether or not there are some substantial constitutional issues that are raised in your case. Now, if any of those things are present, then you may want to delay your case a bit and seek a petition for writ of certiorari in the South Carolina Supreme Court.

But the important thing to know is that it's not for every case.

As a matter of course, you don't just automatically file for a cert petition in the South Carolina Supreme Court. It really depends on a number of factors. If you have any questions about this, please feel free to give our firm a call and somebody here will be more than happy to talk to you more about this particular issue. Please give us a call at 803-445-1333.

Thank you.