Federal Direct Appeal

Your first option for challenging your federal conviction is to appeal your decision directly to the circuit court in which your federal district is located. For example, Tennessee is in the 6th circuit, so your appeal would go to the 6th circuit panel of judges for review. Your attorney ought to have preserved your right to appeal either at the end of trial or at the conclusion of plea negotiations. They would have had 14 days from when your case became “final” to file this notice. If by chance your attorney failed to file such a notice and there were worth grounds of appeal on your case, that failure itself could qualify as ineffective assistance of counsel and could be grounds for post-conviction relief.

If you went to trial, you are able to appeal anything that was preserved during trial. This basically means anything your attorney objected to on the record. In addition, there are other more fundamental constitutional issues you can challenge on appeal regardless of whether or not they were officially preserved on the trial record. Reach out to our office today if you are unsure as to what issues you could or could not appeal.