Kenny, Burns & McGill are proud to announce a brilliant outcome for a client. When a judge acted illegally and unjustly imprisoned our client, we were able to overturn the sentence and free an innocent man.
Our client, who we’ll call Mr. Chris Dent, was under supervised release from a previous run-in with the law. He had taken his sentence to heart, and was well on his way to completely cleaning himself up; he had a new job, new friends, a new life.
So imagine Mr. Dent’s surprise when, without actually being convicted of any new crimes, he was arrested for violating his parole.
The same judge who had put Mr. Dent on supervised release had decided to find him guilty of parole violations, apparently without cause.
Luckily, Mr. Dent was in touch with Kenny, Burns & McGill, and our skilled criminal defense team jumped into action. Appeals Lawyer Thomas D. Kenny immediately filed a Notice of Appeal with the Court of Common Pleas, and the case was quickly moved up the ladder to the Superior Court.
Appeals Attorney Kenny expertly argued to the Superior Court that the Common Pleas judge had acted illegally and wrongly imprisoned his client. After reviewing the case and getting all the details from Attorney Kenny, the Superior Court agreed!
In a wonderful turn, the Superior Court judges completely vacated the lower court’s sentence and put our client back on probation, freeing Mr. Dent from the jail sentence unfairly imposed upon him.
This case had a good outcome, but it drives home the fact that even though someone is a judge at the county level, they can still make mistakes. They are still human. Luckily, as one judge recently said to us, the Superior Court is “an error-fixing court.” The Superior Court pays very close attention to situations like this and would not want any sort of error to stand; it’s the place for people to go when trial judges make mistakes. The Superior Court reviews everything to determine whether a judge got a case right or wrong.
While this case turned out very well for Mr. Dent, the world of criminal appeals is tricky and complex, with myriad rules and deadlines. If you or a loved one need to appeal a case, don’t wait any longer – call the highly experienced criminal defense lawyers at Kenny, Burns & McGill today! (215) 423-5500
By
Kenny, Burns & McGill
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Published
June 13, 2022
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Posted in
Criminal Defense, Firm News
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Tagged Appeal, Criminal defense, Parole Violations, Philadelphia
