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Appellate Division

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Appellate Division

January 3, 2023 info Comments Off

A defendant who is convicted has a right to file an appeal after a trial at the Superior Court and that court has entered a final order. That appeal is filed at the Supreme Court of the Virgin Islands. The convicted’s right to an appeal is guaranteed by title 4, section 33, of the Virgin Islands Code and the Due Process Clauses of the Revised Organic Act and the Constitution of the United States.

A case may also originate from the Magistrate Division of the Superior Court. A convicted defendant may file a petition for review at the Superior Court. If the Supreme Court agrees with the magistrate, then an appeal to the Superior Court is proper.

There are three Justices of the Supreme Court: Chief Justice Rhys Hodge, Associate Justice Maria Cabret, and Associate Justice Ive Arlington Swan. At the Supreme Court of the Virgin Islands, the party seeking a criminal appeal is called an “appellant”, the responding party—usually the “People of the Virgin Islands,” as the government is known during litigation—is called an “appellee.”

The Supreme Court of the Virgin Islands does not retry cases or hear new evidence. It mostly reviews the record created at the trial court to make sure that the proper law was applied at trial. Both the appellant and the appellee present a written argument to the Court in a document called a “brief.”

Common grounds for an appeal include claims that the evidence was not sufficient to convict the accused or that the trial judge incorrectly applied the applicable law. The appellant may argue that his/her convictions violate the Revised Organic Act or the Constitution of the United States.

After all briefs are received, the Court may schedule an oral argument. At oral argument each attorney has a chance to present arguments directly to the Justices.

If the appellant is dissatisfied with the decision of the Supreme Court of the Virgin Islands, the Appellant may file a petition for a writ of certiorari for the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit to review the challenged decision. Recently, Congress passed a bill that would require the petition for a writ of certiorari to be filed at the Supreme Court of the United States.

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