Be careful what you argue on appeal. The Court of Appeals is not obligated to help you out. You fail to raise the right argument and it is your fault. Make sure you get a lawyer who knows which arguments to raise on appeal and who will raise all the arguments that should be raised. The issue of manifest weight vs. insufficient evidence is an example of this.
A decision just came out of the Second District Court of Appeals for Clark County (seated in Springfield, Ohio) in which appellate counsel raised an argument that the conviction for possession of 1000 grams of cocaine was against the manifest weight of the evidence. Well, the State failed to present evidence of what the cocaine weighed without the packaging it was in so the Defendant/Appellant won the appeal. But they won on a manifest weight argument so what did the Court of Appeals do? The Court remanded the case for a new trial. So what will the State do? Weigh the cocaine, convict him again and put him back in the slammer.
Now if appellate counsel argued that there was "insufficient evidence" and won the appeal that way (if it was possible in that case to win on that issue), the State would not be permitted to put the defendant back on trial. The worst that could happen is that the Court of Appeals could impose a conviction of a lesser included offense.
This is because a conviction that is against the manifest weight of the evidence allows for re-trial. A conviction based on insufficient evidence does not. Tibbs v. Florida, 457 U.S. 31.
If you are accused of a crime or have been convicted already, contact me if you can afford to hire a private attorney. Otherwise, contact your county or state public defender to see if they can help.
