Steve Palmer [00:00:00]:

Alright. Steve Palmer here. LawyerTalk Q and A. What does that stand for? Well, question and answer. So people ask me questions right here in the comments or at lawyertalkpodcast.com, and then I provide answers. Is this legal advice? No. It's not legal advice, but it is instructive, and it may help you. If you need legal advice, that's easy.

Steve Palmer [00:00:18]:

Just go to palmer legaldefense.com. Look us up, and I'll be happy to help you with your legal problems or at least maybe shoot you in the right direction so somebody else can help you with your legal problems. Believe it or not, I'm not an expert in everything. I know a little bit about a lot, but, you know, we'll get you to the right place. So that brings us today to today's question. This is from Mark. And guess what? I am, changing the names because this one seems like it might still be going on, and I don't want to compromise that in any way. But Mark asked, I just lost my trial.

Steve Palmer [00:00:48]:

I have a sentencing hearing scheduled in February. I want to appeal my case. Can I get my sentencing hearing postponed? Will I still have to serve my sentence? I don't think it's fair that I should have to start my sentence if I'm going to appeal. Alright. There's a lot baked into this equation. The answer is maybe, maybe, maybe. And let me tell you what's going on. So in it depend and some of it may be.

Steve Palmer [00:01:12]:

It all depends. If if you go through a jury trial in a criminal case or a court trial in a criminal case and you lose, a lot of times what will happen is the judge will say, alright, we're gonna come back for sentencing, in about a month. And in the meantime, what they're gonna do is they're gonna conduct and prepare a pre sentence investigation and report. That's sort of a background report on who you are. They're gonna ask for victim input. If there's a victim, they're gonna ask for the prosecutor's input. And then they're gonna ask you, the guy or the girl convicted, for your input. And they're just looking for your background.

Steve Palmer [00:01:47]:

What you've done? What's your record? Is this an anomaly? Or is it likely to repeat? And then from there, they're gonna apply that into their equation of factors and come up with a sentence. And then you show up at a sentencing hearing. Now, the none of that really will change if you want to appeal. Generally speaking, you don't you don't postpone your sentencing date, just because you're gonna appeal. You will be sentenced. And and, you know, there's there's sort of a famous guy going through this right now. His name is Trump. Right? He's getting sentenced, I think, very soon here.

Steve Palmer [00:02:20]:

And he went through this process, like, he's going to clearly appeal his convictions, but he still gotta show up for a sentencing hearing. After his sentencing hearing, he can appeal. Now what you're really asking what Mark is really asking is, is there a way to postpone or stay the sentence while he appeals his case? So play it out this way. Say it's a serious say it's a murder case, and Mark doesn't tell us what it is. But say it's a murder case. And after the murder case, he's convicted, and he goes to send he goes to a sentencing hearing. The judge says, here in Ohio would be something like 18 to life, which means he's serving 18 years in prison before he even has a chance to see the parole board or get out early. Now, it'd be less likely in a murder case that the judge will consider delaying or postponing that sentence for to give Mark a or who are call him our hero, a chance to appeal.

Steve Palmer [00:03:15]:

But other cases and maybe even in a murder case that might happen. And and it works a lot like a bond hearing, before trial. The idea would be, judge, even though I've been convicted, even though I've been sentenced to serve 18 to life, I intend to appeal the case. And it's not just nonsense. It's not just frivolous, dribble. We have a good legal issue that we're gonna raise. Maybe it's a constitutional issue. Maybe, who knows what it is? But it's a good legal issue.

Steve Palmer [00:03:42]:

And, judge, we think we have a good chance of winning on appeal. Would you let me out on bond while I take my opportunity to appeal? We would call this in Ohio an appellate bond. And here's how it works. I first asked the trial court, judge, let my client out on bond. I don't care what it is. Call it $1,000,000. We'll go hire bondsman. Maybe you've got funds.

Steve Palmer [00:04:03]:

Maybe the judge sets a bond that's too high, but we'd like a bond. Now if the judge says, yes, that's awesome. You're out on bond while you're appealing, assuming that you can afford the bond. Sometimes, I had a client recently did this with a property bond, happened to own a lot of property that had or his family did that had some value. They didn't have to sell it, but they literally brought a deed to the Clerk of Courts, And, that became collateral or surety, for my client's release while he was appealing. Now if the judge says, no, no chance. You're guilty as the day is long. I'm never letting you out of prison over my dead body or out of my cold dead hands.

Steve Palmer [00:04:40]:

Am I going to let you out of prison? Well, now I've got at least an entry. I did this down in Cincinnati a year or so ago. At least I got an entry that says, all right, this trial judge is not letting my client out. I'm going to appeal that decision. So I got now 2 appeals going on. I filed my notice of appeal on the underlying conviction. And now I've appealed the fact that the trial judge won't let my client out. And I take that issue to the Court of Appeals and say, hey, Court of Appeals, I got a good reason why my client should be on bond, and this sentence shouldn't be enforced while I'm doing this appeal.

Steve Palmer [00:05:12]:

Please review. Every now and then, we get an appellate bond that way. But more often than not, the the Court of Appeals will probably agree with the trial court, which means, unfortunately, a guy like Mark may be sitting in jail while his, appeal is pending. And you would ask, how long does that take? Well, it all depends. The first appeal would be to the the court of appeals. It's called a direct appeal in Ohio. And then if you lose there, you go to the Ohio Supreme Court. If they agree to review it, then you got another whole, mess of appellate stuff going on there.

Steve Palmer [00:05:44]:

So it could be a year or maybe even more. And even after you're done in Ohio, you could even go to federal court. So it could take quite a bit. I have clients in prison for a long time while we're fighting their convictions, on the appellate level. So, look, this is a great question. Obviously, it's, I could talk about this stuff for hours. If you've got your own question or a follow-up, please leave it in the comments. Go to lawyertalkpodcast.com.

Steve Palmer [00:06:05]:

Send us a question there. Happy to answer it. We are lawyer talk off the record, q and a style, at least until now.