Once you lose your court martial case, you have the right to an appeal. If you don’t have an automatic appeal, there are still ways to petition for that appeal. The appeals process is lengthy and there are many different steps that can be taken. It starts at the service court, meaning if you were convicted in the Army, there is an Army appellate court, and it goes through there. If you lose there, then you have a chance to go back to the Army court and ask for the entire panel to look at it. Once you are done there, then you can go to the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, which is essentially the military’s Supreme Court. If you lose at that level, in most cases, your appeal options are done. However, there are rare situations where there are avenues to appeal to the federal district court or the Supreme Court.
How Long Does The Appeals Process Take?
The appeals process in military cases can take exceptionally long, sometimes, many years. In a case with a conviction and sentence of lengthy confinement or punitive discharge, a member typically has an automatic appeal. The window for that appeal to even start can take upwards of a year to open. In the interim, the Government has to produce a transcript and counsel for both sides get to look at the transcript to make sure that it’s accurate. You also have time to submit matters to the convening authority, the general or admiral who is in charge of the case. It then has to get sent up to the appeals court for them to open up that window.
Once your counsel gets the case, you want to make sure that they have enough time to go through everything, think it through, get other cases off their plate, and focus on your case. That can take months. Meanwhile, perhaps you are sitting in jail, and you are anxious. We’ve had cases where we’ve seen people not get their final appeals decisions until two to two and a half years after the court martial ended. That’s grueling for the person who actually suffered from the conviction but the process is slow and you want it to be as accurate and professional as possible, and that takes time.
For more information on Steps After Losing A Court Martial Appeal, an initial consultation is your next best step.
