Will W.Va. finally get ‘right of appeal’?
by admin on 15/01/10 at 6:15 am
The Charleston Gazette
By Mark Sadd
January 15, 2010
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — In the movies, when the jury hands down an unjust verdict, the scrappy underdog lawyer — isn’t it always either Henry Fonda or Al Pacino? — exclaims with steely resolve: “We’re gonna take it all the way to the Supreme Court!”
He does, and he wins — and in a cheap suit, no less. Vindicated, he descends the courthouse steps and the camera pans to a happy jurisprudential ending.
Films and crime novels have largely formed the popular impression that lawyers can appeal their clients’ cases to a higher court when juries and trial court judges get things wrong. (And, let’s face it, like the rest of us mortals, they sometimes do.)
The belief is largely true. Henry Fonda’s framed client would have the right to have his case reviewed for mistakes in an appellate court not only in make-believe Hollywood but also in Maine, Illinois, Kentucky, Mississippi and, in most civil and criminal cases, in every other state — with the exception of one.
That’s right. You guessed it.
You would have a better chance to have your case reviewed for a decision by an NBC studio executive than you would by the West Virginia Supreme Court. I grant you, this is a bit of hyperbolic kidding around, but it underscores this point: West Virginia now is the only state in which its appellate court maintains an entirely discretionary docket.
