The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution protects criminal defendants against compelled self-incrimination. In the criminal appeals context, this protection generates two major categories of issues: challenges to the adequacy of Miranda warnings and the voluntariness of post-warning statements,…
Evidence obtained through an unlawful search or seizure generally cannot be used against a defendant in a criminal prosecution. When the police searched without a valid warrant, conducted a stop without reasonable suspicion, or made an arrest without probable cause…
A direct appeal is not always available, and even when it is, it cannot address every problem with a conviction. Evidence discovered after trial cannot be introduced on direct appeal. Ineffective assistance claims that depend on evidence outside the record…
Most Utah criminal convictions follow a guilty plea, not a trial. That means most criminal appeals involve either a challenge to the plea itself — whether it was knowing, voluntary, and supported by an adequate factual basis — or a…
Every trial involves dozens of evidentiary rulings. Most are correct. Some are wrong. And a small fraction of those wrong rulings are both legally erroneous and harmful enough to the defense that they warrant reversal on appeal. The practical challenge…
A prosecutor’s duty is not to win — it is to seek justice. When prosecutors cross that line, using improper tactics that undermine a defendant’s right to a fair trial, the conviction that results may not stand. Prosecutorial misconduct is…
A sufficiency-of-the-evidence challenge is the appeal that, if it succeeds, produces the best possible outcome: acquittal as a matter of law, without a retrial. The prosecution’s evidence was so thin — so legally insufficient — that no rational jury should…
A conviction appeal and a sentence appeal are two different things, operating under different standards, targeting different kinds of errors. A defendant who accepts that the jury’s verdict was fair and legally supportable may still have strong grounds to challenge…
The Sixth Amendment guarantees every criminal defendant the effective assistance of counsel. When that guarantee is violated — when trial counsel’s performance falls below constitutional minimums and the defendant is convicted as a result — a Utah criminal appeal can…
Lotus Appellate Law handles appeals throughout Utah, serving clients in all counties and courts across the state including: