No one reopens her case for her.

A jury or a judge finds her guilty, or she pleads guilty. The judge then sentences her. From this day, clocks start running on several of the papers below.

Most criminal convictions in the United States come from a plea, not a trial. Innocent women plead guilty, often to avoid the risk of a much longer sentence. A plea of no contest, or an Alford plea, where she keeps saying she is innocent but accepts the conviction, counts as a conviction too.

Her appeal is limited. After a plea, many states allow an appeal only on narrow issues, and some require a court's permission first. If she did not appeal, the federal clock usually started when her time to appeal ran out.

She can still challenge the plea. A state post-conviction petition can argue that she did not understand what she was agreeing to, that she was pressured, or that her lawyer gave her bad advice about the plea. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that bad advice from a lawyer about a plea can make the conviction unconstitutional.

Some innocence laws exclude pleas. In some states, the laws for new evidence of innocence or DNA testing limit or bar cases that ended in a guilty plea. Check her state's rules on the Forms page.

Hill v. Lockhart, 474 U.S. 52 (1985); North Carolina v. Alford, 400 U.S. 25 (1970).

Sentence review asks a panel of judges to look at the length of her sentence. The deadline is usually a few weeks after sentencing. In some states, including Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana and New Hampshire, the panel can increase the sentence as well as reduce it. In Rhode Island, asking for a sentence reduction allows the Attorney General to ask for an increase.

Sentence modification asks the judge who sentenced her to reduce it. The deadline is usually a few months after sentencing. These forms do not claim she is innocent. They can bring her home sooner while the rest of the work goes on.

Her lawyer asks a higher court to find mistakes in the trial, such as evidence that should not have been allowed or wrong instructions to the jury. She has a right to a lawyer for this appeal, and one is appointed if she cannot pay.

The deadline to start the appeal is short, often 30 days or less. The appeal looks only at what happened in the courtroom. It cannot consider new evidence. That is why the next step exists.

Douglas v. California, 372 U.S. 353 (1963).

This is where most innocent women make their case. The petition goes back to a state court and raises what the trial record does not show: a trial lawyer who never investigated, evidence the prosecution hid, an expert whose science was wrong, new witnesses or new evidence.

Each state sets its own deadline and its own rules. Some states appoint a lawyer once the petition is filed. If the court denies it, she can usually ask a higher state court to review that decision. Every claim she wants a federal court to hear later must be raised here first.

Build the proof here. Federal courts usually review the state court's decision on the record the state court had, and they defer to that decision. New evidence often cannot be added in federal court. Everything that proves her claims, such as signed statements from witnesses, records and an expert's report, should be presented in the state case.

28 U.S.C. § 2254(b)(1); Cullen v. Pinholster, 563 U.S. 170 (2011); Shinn v. Ramirez, 596 U.S. 366 (2022); 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d).

After the state courts have ruled, she can ask a federal court whether her conviction violated the U.S. Constitution.

The one-year federal clock starts when her conviction became final, and it keeps running until a state post-conviction petition is properly filed. A state petition filed after the state's own deadline does not stop the federal clock. If she was convicted in federal court, the form is a motion under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 instead.

28 U.S.C. § 2244(d)(2); Pace v. DiGuglielmo, 544 U.S. 408 (2005).

Physical evidence, such as clothing, biological samples, slides and the items tested at trial, can be lost or destroyed years after a conviction. When it is gone, new testing and new forensic review may no longer be possible. Write to the court clerk, the police department's evidence or property unit, and the crime lab or medical examiner's office that handled the case. Ask whether the evidence in her case still exists and where it is kept, and ask in writing that it be preserved. Keep a copy of every letter and every answer. Some states have laws requiring evidence to be kept; a lawyer can also ask a court to order it.

In a case where no crime happened, these records are often the evidence: the recording or transcript of her police interview, 911 calls, the medical records, the autopsy report and the medical examiner's notes, photographs, and lab reports. Her trial lawyer's file may already have many of them. Others can be requested from the agency that holds them, sometimes through a public records request.

DNA testing. Every state has a law letting a prisoner ask for DNA testing when biological evidence exists.

Changed science. Several states, starting with Texas, allow a new petition when the forensic science used to convict her has changed since trial. In 2026, Oregon opened a new petition for convictions based on hair comparison, bite-mark analysis or bullet-lead analysis, with a two-year window for people whose appeals are over.

Survivors of abuse. Some states have laws written for survivors of domestic violence. New York's Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act lets a survivor sentenced to a term of 8 years or more, for an offense committed before the law took effect, ask to be resentenced, using official court forms. Illinois lets a survivor of domestic or gender-based violence convicted of a forcible felony ask to be resentenced when evidence of the abuse was not presented at sentencing, and the usual two-year limit does not apply. N.Y. Crim. Proc. Law § 440.47; 735 ILCS 5/2-1401(b-5).

Conviction integrity units. Some prosecutors' offices have units that re-examine old convictions. No court filing is needed, but they choose which cases to take.

Clemency. A governor or a pardon board can shorten a sentence or pardon her. For a federal conviction, only the president can.

Our Resources page explains each of these in more detail.

The court reads the petition. It may dismiss it, or it may order the state to respond. It may appoint a lawyer for her. It may hold a hearing where witnesses testify. Then it rules.

If the court rules for her, it can order a new trial, reduce her sentence or vacate the conviction. The state may retry her, drop the charges or appeal. If the court rules against her, she can usually appeal. The process often takes years. Filing on time is what keeps every one of these doors open.