RockyTop85
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There are guaranteed ways to put the evidence in the record at a post conviction, petition of habeas corpus, or writ of error coram nobis. Those decisions are brought before the trial court and then can be appealed.as in, new evidence that would prove innocence comes out, there is no guarantee an appeals court would hear the trial? or there is no guarantee that even if there was a trial it would actually over turn the previous ruling?
Exaggerated and not super realistic example: Let’s say I am post convicting a rape case where the victim comes in and testifies that she’s less sure that my client was the assailant than she was at trial and that she now has evidence that the rape happened at the Chattanooga Marriott on September 19. I produce cell phone records and airline tickets that show my client was in San Diego from September 10 through 21 of that same year. A hospital records custodian comes in and says that they located an untested rape kit and sent it for testing. It matches Notmyclient.
I think the trial judge would probably find a way to fix this. He/she would do so by identifying some constitutional procedural defect and overturning the conviction on those grounds. It almost certainly would not be on the basis that I had proven my client’s innocence because it is in doubt whether actual innocence is a legal theory on which relief can be granted under the framework for those cases. Part of my job as counsel would be to raise any and all procedural defects so the judge has something to hang it on.
Take the variables that make that case egregious and it doesn’t take much to get to the point where the judge won’t go out of his way to fix it and you’re just stuck because you got convicted at a fair trial.