How Many Times Can Convicted Murderers Appeal a Guilty Verdict?

In 2023, the FBI reported 19,252 murder and intentional manslaughter cases in the United States. However, even when the legal process finds someone guilty of murder, the case doesn’t always end with a guilty verdict.

Many convicted killers choose to appeal their verdicts or sentences to higher courts—a process the U.S. Department of Justice describes as “an opportunity for the defendant to try to raise specific errors that might have occurred at trial.” Appeals can ultimately result in an overturned decision, a modified sentencing, a retrial or no change to the original verdict.

Defendants typically have the right to at least one appeal. And when appeals courts uphold the lower courts’ original decisions, people convicted of murder can appeal to higher courts. It all depends on the details of the case.

After courts render guilty verdicts and sentences, defendants must file notices that they plan to appeal within specified timeframes, usually between 14 and 30 days.

In some states, appeals for convictions of the most serious crimes, like capital murder, bypass the appeals courts and head directly to state supreme courts. For example, in Massachusetts, appeals of first-degree murder convictions go directly to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, rather than to the Massachusetts Appeals Court.

During the criminal appeals process, neither the prosecution nor the defense calls witnesses or presents new evidence. The appellate judges decide the appeals based on their reviews of the trial records and the arguments that were made by the lawyers handling the cases.

If new evidence surfaces weeks or months after a guilty verdict that may impact the outcome of the case, the defense may file a motion for a new trial, which will take place if a judge grants the request.

The appeal process can take months or sometimes years as judges decide whether errors during criminal proceedings impacted verdicts or sentencing. Common errors raised during appeals include insufficient evidence, judicial errors, prosecutor or juror misconduct or ineffective legal help for defendants.

Appeals courts can uphold lower court verdicts, order new trials, dismiss the charges altogether or order defendants to be resentenced.

If a defendant originally pleaded guilty to murder charges and agreed to a plea deal, the standard for appealing a conviction becomes much higher than if they had gone to trial. And it generally requires “good cause,” like egregious errors by the defendant’s attorney or the court. Otherwise, when defendants accept plea bargains, they essentially give up their right to appeal.

When appeals courts uphold murder convictions, defendants may be able to appeal to the next highest-level court, oftentimes the state or U.S. Supreme Court. But in those cases, they lose their right to an appointed attorney and must hire their own or get lawyers willing to work for free. In most states and in the federal judiciary system, the appeals to supreme courts are not automatically accepted. Instead, the justices of those courts decide which appeals to accept and reject.

When murder convictions stand with all appeals exhausted, convicted defendants can file writs of habeas corpus, which are legal documents alleging their convictions were obtained in a way that violated their constitutional rights. 

Judges follow strict procedures when deciding which habeas corpus petitions to consider. If accepted, the cases usually require court hearings. When judges rule that appellants’ right to habeas corpus was violated, the prisoners may be released immediately or have their sentences reduced.

After Ohio doctor Samuel Sheppard was convicted in 1954 of second-degree murder for killing his pregnant wife, Marilyn, he filed a federal petition for a writ of habeus corpus in April 1963, arguing, in part, that the pre-trial publicity and media attention surrounding his case denied him his right to a fair trial by an impartial injury. 

His application reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which famously overturned his conviction, citing a “carnival atmosphere” at the courthouse. Sheppard was acquitted in a 1966 retrial.

After going through the appeals process, people convicted of murder might file petitions for new trials or resentencing, which are separate legal processes from appeals.

“Courts have a lot of discretion in deciding such motions. Successful motions often come from newly discovered evidence or proof of substantial procedural errors made in their case,” Melissa Bender, whose career as a trial attorney spanned two decades, writes on FindLaw. “In recent years, DNA evidence found at the scene but not tested in the original case may support a defendant’s claim of mistaken identity.” 

With cases involving capital crimes—like first-degree murder, which is punishable by the death penalty in some states—defendants may be granted automatic appeals to their states’ highest courts, as is the case in California. (At the time of publication, the death penalty is legal in 27 states and at the federal level.) Depending on the state, this appeal can be optional or mandatory.

“Since the mid-1970s, states that permit a death sentence have set up procedural safeguards to prevent its arbitrary use,” Bender writes. “As a result, the appeals process in a capital case may not be the same as that in a non-capital case.”

In Mississippi, Curtis Flowers was tried six times for the July 1996 shooting deaths of a furniture store owner and three employees. Flowers, who had worked briefly at the store and had no prior criminal record, faced capital murder charges—and the death penalty if convicted. 

He was tried six times, with the state presenting largely circumstantial evidence, including testimony from jailhouse informants that was later recanted. There were two mistrials and four guilty verdicts, which the courts repeatedly struck down due to prosecutor misconduct involving misrepresented evidence and the deliberate elimination of Black jurors. 

Flowers, a Black man, spent about 23 years on death row before the U.S. Supreme Court struck down his final conviction in 2019, with a 7-2 majority citing racial bias in jury selection. More than one year later, prosecutors agreed to drop the case.