Ohio Criminal Appeals Lawyer Blog

It is rare to find a conviction reversed because it is "against the manifest weight of the evidence." That is because a conviction should be reversed on this basis "in only the rare case in which the evidence weighs heavily against the conviction." When this happens, the jury has "clearly lost its way" in convicting the defendant.

The Eighth District Court of Appeals for Cuyahoga County just reversed a conviction that was against the manifest weight of the evidence. The Court found "[t]he record lacks consistent, credible evidence to support the jury's verdict that appellant was guilty of aggravated robbery and aggravated murder." Only two witnesses linked the defendant to the crime scene, neither of them saw the appellant with a gun that night, and nobody saw the defendant/appellant shoot the victim.

To get the conviction, the prosecutor relied on speculation by one of the two witnesses who linked the defendant to the crime scene. The prosecutor also misled the jury by arguing that a witness testified to things she never said on the witness stand. The Court found that the prosecutor "crossed a line" and deprived the defendant of a fair trial.

Read the decision in State v. Williams, 2011-Ohio-5483, here.

If you are accused of a crime or have been convicted already, contact me if you can afford to hire a private criminal defense lawyer. Otherwise, contact your county or state public defender to see if they can help.

Contact me 24/7 by sending an email to ohiocriminalappealslawyer@gmail.com

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.