Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: Appealing a signed confession

There are always consequences to our conduct and decisions. He chose to confess, and now will suffer those consequences. Theoretically, there might be grounds for appeal and/or setting aside the conviction, but at best it will be an expensive process with no guarantees. Feel free to contact me if serious about pursuing it and paying the price to do so.

Re: Appealing a signed confession

A signed confession is pretty strong evidence, so your claim that there is no evidence at all is incorrect. Besides, where a defendant pleads guilty quickly there often has been no opportunity for the prosecutor to show what other evidence he has. The fact that the D.A. had presented no evidence yet doesn't mean he had none.

Whether your fiance can appeal will depend primarily on when the judgment against him was entered. Having entered a plea instead of going through trial, relatively few arguments may be available to him in the appellate court unless he first gets the trial court to agree other issues have merit.

These procedures take time and the deadlines he must meet are quite rigid.

Feel free to contact me directly if you want to discuss the case futher. I am a certified specialist in appellate practice (per the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization) and would be pleased to review your fiance's situation with you.

Re: Appealing a signed confession

I don't believe your story. Either your fiance (he is -still- your fiance??!?) is guilty and is lying to you, or he foolishly allowed himself to be questioned by the police without a lawyer present and pressured into signing a confession, which says, at best, that he is missing a few brain cells. I suppose you could spend lots of money on lawyers and try and get his guilty plea set aside. Or you can dump him and find a man who isn't a guilty sex offender!