Criminal Appeals

If the jury in your trial has returned with a verdict of guilty, you have the right to appeal. In some appeals you can request that the conviction be set aside and the charges dismissed for lack of sufficient evidence. In most appeals you are seeking the higher court to reverse the conviction and remand back to the lower court for a new trial.

Which court will hear your appeal seems confusing, but simply depends upon the level of court in which you were tried. For example, jury trials and bench trials in Magistrate Court and Municipal Court are tried de novo in state District Court. Convictions in state District Court are appealed to the New Mexico Court of Appeals and then to the New Mexico Supreme Court.

In the federal system, appeals from the US District Court in New Mexico are appealed to the Tenth Circuit United States Court of Appeals in Denver and, ultimately, to the United States Supreme Court in Washington DC.