PCRA & Habeas Corpus

PCRA & Habeas Corpus

PCRA
A PCRA petition gives you a chance to attack your conviction after the appeals process is over. Our firm will reinvestigate your case, and seek to raise issues that were missed, or not investigated, at trial or on appeal. 

The Post-Conviction Relief Act helps you when your appeals process is over but you believe something went wrong with your case. Situations worth investigating include:
  • Issues that were missed due to ineffectiveness of counsel
  • Evidence that has been hidden
  • Newly discovered evidence
This is a way to revisit your case after exhausting all other processes. Contact Wiseman & Schwartz today to speak with a PCRA attorney in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Federal Habeas Corpus
If the state courts don’t grant you relief, you can take your case to federal court through a habeas corpus proceeding. The federal courts will be the final arbitrators if you suffered a constitutional violation in your trial that contributed to the outcome. We handle federal habeas corpus proceedings, for clients who have been convicted and sentenced in state and federal court as a result of trials that were conducted in violation of the Constitution. 
Brady v. Maryland
Under Brady v. Maryland, the Commonwealth is constitutionally required to provide to the defense exculpatory evidence that it has in its possession, and disclose to the defense exculpatory information of which it is aware. Generally speaking, exculpatory evidence is evidence that tends to demonstrate innocence. Brady evidence includes evidence that impeaches (i.e., contradicts or calls into question) Commonwealth evidence against the defendant. Under more recent case law, the Commonwealth is required to provide the defense with Brady material, even when the defense does not specifically request it. 

In the distant and recent past, the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office withheld Brady material, forcing defendants to go to trial without the benefit of evidence that supported a finding of not guilty. This practice violated defendants' constitutional rights, and in a number of cases these violations resulted in defendants being convicted and sentenced to jail (or worse).

The PCRA lawyer you hire must do a thorough search for Brady material. There are a number of ways this is done including, but not limited to, targeted discovery requests and reinvestigation of the case, with particular emphasis on witnesses not previously contacted or called to the stand. The discovery of Brady evidence in post-conviction at the state and federal level has been a successful route to getting convictions vacated and new trials granted in a number of cases.
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