Things you should tell your client
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In continuation of a series of posts about client representation in criminal cases, I have this to add:
Tell your clients about any post-conviction proceedings. Tell your client of his/her right to appeal (if there is such a right), right to seek sentence review (if such a right exists) and, equally important, that he/she has one year from when the conviction becomes final [please explain what that means] to seek redress in Federal court via a habeas corpus petition. Also explain that state collateral proceedings will toll that one year statute of limitations period.
The reason for this is that clients don’t know jack. More often than not, if a client receives a lengthy sentence, he will wait a while after the appeal is decided before pursuing state habeas options. That “a while” is usually more than a year. Which means that even if there is a successful habeas claim, it can never be presented in Federal Court.
The other day I was assigned a client who, luckily, has two months left out of that one year period. He didn’t do that intentionally. He had no idea. I barely noticed it. We got lucky. Next time, maybe not.
The more you know…
Technorati Tags: federal habeas corpus, criminal law
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The circuit I’m in now has all clients sign an ‘Acknowledgment of Habeas Rights’ form and then the judge goes over it again at sentencing..
Oh that is fantastic! Is a copy of that available online?
I think the problem, in CT anyway, is that we don’t have an SOL for state habeas petitions here. It leads clients and attorneys to believe that the date of filing the state habeas is unimportant, which, as Gideon correctly points out, is untrue and harmful to our clients.