QUESTION
Is there a time frame for a retrial on a case that has been reversed and remanded by an appelate court?
Asked on Oct 06th, 2015 on Criminal Law - Texas
More details to this question:
I was convicted of ago assault with a deadly weapon in March of 2012. I was given 3 years in prison. I posted my appeal bond (the first one of many) and waited for the outcome of my appeal.
Over a yyear ago my case was reversed and remanded by the appelate court.
I guess you need to know that I acted in self defense. I went to see my attorney and was told at that point that I would have to still plead guilty to a lesser charge and probably do some probated time. I want at all happy with that and my attorney knew it. I didn't hear from him for
almost a year and when I did hear from him he called to tell me that the whole thing had been dismissed. I was so relieved.
It was short lived as he called me 2 weeks later to tell me my trial date. In beyond confused...scared and so uncertain what to do i could scream. It seems my lawyer is
as negligent as the court was that convicted me. Can somebody advise me on what to do?.
1 ANSWER
Criminal Law Attorney serving Houston, TX
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Winning an appeal is like hitting the 'reset' button on your Nintendo. Instead of going off to prison for 3 years, you go back to the beginning of the process. Procedurally, it's as if you were arrested a few days ago, and just bonded out. Typically, appellate reversals are issue-based; not charge-based. In other words, once you win the appeal, and the case is remanded back to the original trial court, the DA's office can happily retry the case. All they have to do is avoid whatever it was that got the case overturned on appeal in the first place. The fact that you won the appeal doesn't mean the DA's office cannot retry you for the same offense, or a lesser-included offense. If you don't want to do probation on a lesser, you need to prepare to go to trial, argue it to a jury, and hope they agree (or have a reasonable doubt as to whether the State's evidence convinces them BRD that you did not in fact act in self-defense).
Answered on Oct 13th, 2015 at 12:40 PM