Alabama Criminal Appeals Attorney
Alabama Criminal Defense Appellate Lawyer
Appealing a criminal conviction for a felony in Alabama is a complicated process. Criminal appeals are controlled by numerous laws and strict rules of appellate procedure, and should only be handled by an attorney with the legal experience and academic skills to argue them correctly. Alabama appellate attorney William L. Pfeifer, Jr., is an experienced and aggressive criminal defense lawyer who has handled criminal trials and appeals all over Alabama since 1993. He now focuses his practice on the appellate stage of the criminal litigation process, operating a statewide appellate law practice challenging felony convictions on appeal. A former staff attorney to the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals, Pfeifer knows the kinds of issues that an appellate court judge considers important when reviewing an Alabama felony conviction. Pfeifer has extensive knowledge of Alabama criminal law, and has published articles on criminal defense issues that have appeared in legal publications such as The Alabama Lawyer (published by the Alabama State Bar Association) and The Guardian (the newsletter of the Alabama Criminal Defense Lawyers Association (ACDLA)). He has also taught continuing legal education (CLE) courses to other criminal defense lawyers on topics such as the right to a speedy trial, the assertion of the Fifth Amendment privilege, and on defending juvenile defendants being prosecuted in adult court.
In Alabama, appeals from every county are decided by appellate court judges in Montgomery, Alabama. The appeal of a felony conviction will be argued first to the AlabamaCourt of Criminal Appeals, and it may also be argued later to the Alabama Supreme Court, by submitting lengthy appellate briefs explaining to the court why a conviction should be overturned or reversed. In some situations the request is for a new trial, while in other cases the request is for the appellate court to completely dismiss the charges against the defendant. The kind of remedy that can be requested from the appellate court will depend on the legal issues that exist in the particular case. In rare situations, it may even be possible to successfully appeal the entry of a guilty plea in a felony case. More often, appeals will be based on a conviction that resulted from a jury verdict at the end of a felony trial.
In most criminal appeals, the appellate courts do not schedule the cases for oral argument. Thus, there are rarely any court hearings in the criminal appeals process and it is very likely that the defendant will never even see the appellate judge who is ruling on his or her case. Exceptions occur when the appeal involves a particularly complex issue of law, an unusual set of circumstances that creates a new legal issue, or when the defendant received a death sentence. In fact, appealing a death sentence in a capital case is when a defendant is most likely to be granted oral argument in a criminal appeal.
To learn more about the Alabama criminal appeals process, visit the Appeals page on this website. You can also learn more about how to appeal a criminal conviction by reading the Alabama Rules of Appellate Procedure, which are available on this site by clicking here.
Pfeifer’s appellate law office accepts clients who need to appeal criminal convictions from every circuit court in every county in Alabama, including: Autauga, Baldwin, Barbour, Bibb, Blount, Bullock, Butler, Calhoun, Chambers, Cherokee, Chilton, Choctaw, Clarke, Clay, Cleburne, Coffee, Colbert, Conecuh, Coosa, Covington, Crenshaw, Cullman, Dale, Dallas, Dekalb, Elmore, Escambia, Etowah, Fayette, Franklin, Geneva, Greene, Hale, Henry, Houston, Jackson, Jefferson, Lamar, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Lee, Limestone, Lowndes, Macon, Madison, Marengo, Marion, Marshall, Mobile, Monroe, Montgomery, Morgan, Perry, Pickens, Pike, Randolph, Russell, St. Clair, Shelby, Sumter, Talladega, Tallapoosa, Tuscaloosa, Walker, Washington, Wilcox, and Winston. No matter what Alabama county handled the trial of your case, your appeal will go to the appellate courts in Montgomery. Call Bill Pfeifer at (800) 737-3702 Extension 1, or use the online Contact form on this website to send him an email about your case.
Alabama State Bar rules require the following disclaimer in all attorney advertisements: “No representation is made that the quality of legal services to be performed is greater than the quality of services provided by other attorneys.”
