Vernon Presley, Elvis Presley's father, places a rose on his son's grave Nov. 24, 1977, as newspeople were permitted inside the grounds at Graceland in Memphis, Tenn., for the first time since Elvis' funeral.
3. Federal Criminal Appeals Are Generally Slow. If immediate results are your thing, you will probably be frustrated by the federal criminal appellate experience. Generally, federal criminal appeals take many months, if not a year or more. Why? The federal courts are crowded, and the process of an appeal is, by its nature, slow. The courts, for the most part, consider each case and each legal claim individually, which takes time. Technology has helped speed up parts of the process in recent years.
Death penalty appeals (which includes an appeal from the death judgment and other post-conviction review, including state and federal habeas corpus proceedings) comprise a lengthy and complicated process that can take 10-20 years, or more, during which the defendant's innocence or guilt is rarely the focus.