Legal Question in Criminal Law in Texas

how much does it cost( an average fee, ball park, I know every case is differnt) in Texas for an appeal for a 22 yr old, 2 counts agg rber. was given 30 yrs,has asked for apeall. His current laywer is offering one from his firm, but I don't know if it will really help. I am a single mom, I can not afford $10,000 for a new attorney.

My son had 15 support/charater letters, he had a higher than 4.0 in HS, played baseball all his life, attende church, was going to pursue an engineering degree @ UT, when he got caught up in this Craglist scam, of selling i phones( but he would really take their walet and cell phone. He never hurt(physically, like kill/shoot gun)

He had 1 prior rob of habitation and was on probation whenhe started the Craiglist scam and went into hiding for 2 years, till he was caught. on 2/1/2012 they sentenced him to 30 yrs!!!!there was NO TRIAl (state of Texas offerd 15 years and our attorney said he could get it down to 8-10 yrs, but it semed to blow up in his face, this attorney is about 70 yrs old and has a ton of experience, I just can't understand why this happened.) I beleive he should do time, but NOT 30 years!

Please help W/ any advice/information.


Asked on 2/04/12, 9:24 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
M. Elizabeth Foley The Law Office of M. Elizabeth Foley

I've already answered your previous question about this whole situation, but I don't understand what you're talking about on this with him not having a trial. There's not many options here. Either there was a plea bargain agreement for 30 years which he took and the judge accepted (and I think you're saying that didn't happen), or he went to trial (keep in mind a trial can be before either a judge or a jury), or he pled guilty with no agreement on punishment, and the judge or jury decided only his punishment, not his guilt or innocence, after a punishment hearing (which nonetheless would probably have involved all or most of the evidence that would have been put on at a full trial).

But what you're saying doesn't seem to really match up with any of those possibilities. You might get farther with this if you'd contact an individual attorney and give them your son's case information, so that the attorney could look up the case and figure out what happened procedurally. If he pled guilty, be aware that as I told you before, there is just not any real way to appeal the length of a sentence, as long as it's somewhere within the correct punishment range.

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Answered on 2/06/12, 9:57 pm


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