Practice Areas

A conviction for a crime may feel final, but it does not mean the end of your rights to challenge your case. Depending on the circumstances, your case may have reviewable issues for an appeal or other post-conviction/post-judgment  motion for relief. New York City and state federal criminal appeals lawyer Mark M. Baker, Esq., assists clients charged or convicted of crimes at every stage of criminal proceedings in both state and federal court.

New York Criminal Defense Lawyer

If you have the financial ability to hire a private attorney, you may be able to successfully appeal your case, or mount a successful post-conviction/post-judgment collateral challenge,  if viable issues exist. Mr. Baker provides experienced assistance with:

Criminal appeals: If your right to appeal has been safeguarded with a timely notice of appeal, Mr. Baker can provide you with skilled representation in an appeal to New York and federal higher courts.

Criminal appeals from judgments of conviction or post-conviction/post-judgment collateral challenges: There may be any one of a host of other issues that can be raised to challenge a conviction, even if only supported by issues that are not reflected in the record on appeal, thereby precluding a direct appeal. Such could include, for example, prosecutorial misconduct, ineffective assistance of counsel or newly discovered evidence.

Criminal motions litigation: In addition to criminal appeals, Mr. Baker assists clients and their criminal defense attorneys at every pre-conviction stage of criminal motion litigation, including pretrial challenges to the indictment in addition to-, post-conviction motions for relief.

Federal habeas corpus: Mr. Baker has extensive experience with petitions for a writ of habeas corpus in the federal district and circuit courts of appeals all across the country. Habeas corpus challenges involve, petitions to the federal courts  that address the authority of the state government to hold a prisoner, in violation of federal constitutional rights, once state remedies have been exhausted.

Representation for Wide Range of Appealable Issues

With well over 40 years of experience handling criminal appeals and post-conviction/post-judgment motion litigation, Mr. Baker has the ability to quickly identify issues in criminal cases that could potentially result in a successful challenge to the judgment. After reviewing and discussing your case with you, Mr. Baker will determine whether one or more appealable issues exist in your case, or whether a collateral challenge, involving a post-conviction/post-judgment motion might be successful. Appeals or post-conviction/post-judgment collateral challenges may be based on many grounds, including:

Prosecutorial misconduct: In appropriate cases, Mr. Baker prepares collateral motions to vacate judgments of conviction, or set aside verdicts, based on the prosecution’s failure to disclose evidence and other unrecorded improper behavior.

Ineffective Assistance of Counsel: Mr. Baker may be able to identify areas where your trial or plea attorney either acted wrongly or negligently and where, through erroneous advice, failure to properly advise, misrepresentations, or other non-strategic-based decisions, you were deprived of your federal and New York constitutional rights to effective assistance of counsel.

Newly discovered evidence of innocence: Mr. Baker may be able to challenge your conviction if evidence is now available in your case that exonerates you or demonstrates your actual innocence, which had not been  available before your conviction.

Other grounds for appeal: Every case is different, and myriad reasons for an appeal, pre-conviction or post-conviction challenge exist. Mr. Baker may be able to challenge your case based on constitutional, evidentiary or procedural violations.

If you believe you have grounds for an appeal or other collateral post-conviction or post-judgment challenge to  your criminal conviction, contact Mr. Baker for more information.