New Jersey Supreme Court Rules Defendant’s In Post-Conviction Relief Proceedings Entitled To Oral Arguments.

The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled recently in State v. Parker that all defendants in post-conviction relief proceedings are entitled to oral arguments on their petitions and that summary proceedings on the papers are not sufficient.

This case by the Supreme Court is an extension of the Appellate Division case State v. Mayron, which held that there is a strong presumption for oral arguments.

Although the granting of post-convictions petitions are rare, there have been numerous cases in which the defendant has been able to set aside convictions or obtain new trials based on newly discovered evidence or a strong showing that trial defense counsel rendered legal representations which was constitutionally ineffective, meaning in essences that the level of legal representation of defense counsel was so ineffective as to deny the defendant a fair trial.

Under New Jersey law post-conviction relief petitions are equivalent to a Writ of Habeas Corpus in the federal system.  The most famous of those federal cases was the case of prize fighter Hurricane Carter who eventually won his habeas corpus petition when federal district court judge H. Lee Sarokin ruled that the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office had committed prosecutorial misconduct by withholding exculpatory evidence from the defense at trial.  The case was made into a Hollywood movie called the “The Hurricane”, which starring Denzel Washington.

If you have been wrongly convicted or received an illegal sentence you have the legal right to file a post-conviction relief petition no later than five-years after your sentencing date, and thereafter to the federal courts.

The Law Office of Vincent J. Sanzone, Jr., has represented numerous defendants in post-conviction relief proceedings.

This is a public service blog provided to the people from the Law Office of Vincent J. Sanzone, Jr., Esq.

CriminalDefenseNJ.com

September 11, 2012

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P.O. Box 261

Elizabeth, New Jersey

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