These are the current blogs of the Trial Dog.
No Magic Pill: Dispelling Myths About Pleas in Criminal Court
Let me say again, however, once a person has accepted a plea agreement and then the judge has accepted it and sentenced the person, it is next to impossible to unwind the plea bargain. For the vast majority of cases, there is no special motion that one can file to get it back to square one and undo the plea. There is no magic motion (pill) to fix the problem. The only way to avoid a bad plea deal is to take your chances at trial.
Once More Unto the Breach: A Basic Understanding of Direct Criminal Appeals
An appeal is not a “do-over, “re-do,” or some second chance looked at over a video monitor. It is not a chance to push the reset button and start over. An appeal is not a “reweighing” of the evidence or a special request for a new trial because the convicted person was not satisfied with the outcome of the trial. That is not how it works, unfortunately.
Don’t Forget the Motion for New Trial: a Short Primer on Its Use in Criminal Court
There can be no strategic reason for not making the proper objections and preserving the record if the goal is to provide “effective assistance” as intended under the Sixth Amendment. Thus, there can be no strategic reason for not filing a motion for new trial when the client was convicted at trial.