Post-Conviction Litigation (Rule 35c)
Our Denver Lawyers Advocate for Post-Conviction Relief
Pursing a new trial through Rule 35(c) litigation
After exhausting all of your appeals, you may feel hopeless about reaching justice. However, you may still have post-conviction options available to you. Rule 35(c) allows you to have a new trial under certain conditions. These cases are tough to win, but a positive result could mean that your conviction is ultimately overturned, you are freed and your ordeal is behind you.
Mulligan Breit, LLC has effectively handled post-conviction litigation for the past 20 years. Our firm is well-known in the legal community for being an authority on the topic of post-conviction procedures. As long as there is an option available to you, our attorneys refuse to give up on helping you get the justice you deserve.
Your rights to post-conviction relief
During the appeal process, you are given the opportunity to address errors that occurred at the trial level. To preserve an issue for appeal, your trial attorney objects. The judge has the authority to overrule or sustain the objection. Your appellate brief asks the appeals court to decide that the trial judge made an incorrect decision.
However, your lawyer may have failed to object when necessary. You also may not have known about certain relevant evidence, or other matters may have arisen after the trial. These are examples of the types of arguments you are permitted to bring up at the post-conviction level under Rule 35(c).
Your rights to post-conviction relief
The U.S. Constitution guarantees your right to an attorney to defend you in your criminal proceedings. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that this right means that you are entitled to effective assistance of counsel. Your former trial attorney may be found ineffective if the lawyer’s performance did not meet the objective standards of reasonableness and, but for your lawyer’s unprofessional error, the outcome of your case would have been different.
Discovery of new evidence
Trials are intended to bring closure in the justice system. However, if new evidence arises that exculpates you, Rule 35(c) may permit you to introduce this evidence at a new trial. Advancements in science have created more accurate testing of DNA, fiber and ballistic evidence, which may not have been available to you at the time of your trial. Prosecutors may have relied on witnesses who now recant their sworn testimony. After being torn with guilt for not coming forward sooner, other witnesses may shed light on what really happened.
Find out if you have a valid post-conviction argument
For a complete analysis of your criminal conviction, call Mulligan Breit, LLC at 303.295.1500 or contact our firm online. We make ourselves available to you when you need us by returning your calls after hours. Our office is located in downtown Denver within walking distance of the primary criminal justice courthouses.
