On February 25, 2011, public defender James Klein filed an appeal of Guandique's conviction with the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. According to the court's annual report, appeals take an average of 588 days to reach resolution. In December 2012 and January 2013, a set of secret hearings was made known to the public, but the subject of the meetings was sealed by the judge. After a third hearing in February, the judge in the case unsealed transcripts from the previous hearings which revealed that Klein was seeking a new trial based on new evidence in the case. A fourth hearing was scheduled for April 2013.