An Appeal? PLease Help ASAP

[asherwood]

What is the name of your state? I live in New York,
Here is a brief summary, my nephew was arrested and sentenced to 4 years in prison for "gang assault". He was at a party where this took place, and before the initial "gang assault" occured him and this kid were fighting one on one. The D.A. of our county gave him a plea bargain of 4 years, and threatened him that if he took it to trial he would make sure he lost and went away for 5-25 years. The day he was sentenced the judge told him he had 30 days to appeal this, now how do we go about it? How can we get the sentenced reduced? As my nephew is accepting responsibilty for hitting him once, but not participating in the gang assault. I heard there is a way to get the "violent" part of the charge dropped, but we are not sure how to go about this??Please help asap, as he is only 19 and was only 18 when this occured, and is now in state prison. He has never been in trouble in his life. Not once! Time is running out for the appeal, so if you could email me with any suggestions, i have been all over the net doing research and keep running into dead ends. Please Help!
[email protected] thanks so much

 

[calatty]

You have to get him a lawyer who specializes in criminal appeals. Legal aid or your state bar should be able to refer you to someone. But you should know that after a guilty plea, the issues he can appeal are very limited, and none of the points you have mentioned are appealable. He will not be able to claim on appeal that he isn't guilty since by pleading guilty he admitted that he is guilty. If he wanted to prove his innocence, the way to do that was to go to trial. He obviously didn't think he could prevail in a trial, and he was right because you don't have to inflict more than one punch to participate in a gang assault. He cannot appeal the 4 year sentence, since that is the deal he agreed to. The DA did not do anything improper by informing him of the sentence he was facing if he went to trial and was found guilty.