Criminal Law

A. The Code of Appellate Procedure chapter amends the procedural framework of appeals in cases involving ethical infractions stipulated by Part IV, Chapter 1 - Criminal Code.

B. For the purposes of this chapter, appeals in cases involving ethical infractions will only be referred to as “appeals”.

C. The jurisdiction to process and adjudicate appeals is held by

1. Criminal Review Office members, and

2. the Ethics Committee Central Command.

D. For the purposes of this chapter, the person processing and adjudicating the appeal will only be referred to as “reviewing officer”.

A. A convicted offender may submit an appeal if the prerequisites stipulated by §1. of Part V, Chapter 4 - Universal Appellate Regulations are met, and if valid grounds for appeal exist. Grounds for appeal are limited to

1. violation of any criminal procedure regulations,

2. misapplication of the criminal charges,

3. discovery of new relevant material evidence,

4. misinterpretation of material evidence,

5. deviation from consistent sentencing, or

6. unreasonable sentencing.

B. The appeal must be submitted within 14 days of receipt of the notice of punitive action. The appeal must be submitted through the designated ticket sent to the Ethics Committee.

C. An appeal submitted by a person other than the offender in the contested report shall be dismissed.

D. If an appeal is submitted with no valid grounds for appeal, the appeal shall be dismissed.

A. The appeal must contain the designation of the contested report, grounds for appeal and the defects complained of in the contested report.

B. If the appeal is based on new facts and evidence, the pertaining material evidence must be attached to the appeal. If this evidence is not provided, the reviewing officer is to dismiss the appeal.

C. If the appeal does not contain the contents mandated by §3. A and B or if the appeal is otherwise defective, the reviewing officer shall instruct the appellant to remedy the defects of the appeal within 3 days. If the defects are not remedied within this timespan, the reviewing officer is to dismiss the appeal.

A. The appeal and the facts of the case shall be reviewed internally by the attached reviewing officer.

B. The reviewing officer shall actively investigate the facts of the case, ascertain testimonial evidence and evaluate the findings in accordance with the contents of this chapter and other relevant legislation and guidelines.

C. The reviewing officer is to account for mitigating and aggravating factors as stipulated in Part IV, Chapter 3 - Code of the Criminal Procedure.

D. The reviewing officer may evaluate the evidence freely with careful consideration of the evidence both individually and in their entirety.

E. The reviewing officer is obligated to review the appeal and the facts of the case objectively, and to withdraw from the case if any conflict of interest or prejudice appears.

F. The review of an appeal must be performed without any undue delay.

A. An appeal must never be adjudicated to the detriment of the appellant.

B. The reviewing officer shall dismiss, deny or accept the appeal. The appeal may only be dismissed under circumstances provided by this chapter or other piece of legislation.

C. The reviewing officer shall accept the appeal if it is determined that

1. procedural regulations were substantially violated during the initial investigation, and this violation could have affected the fairness of the final decision,

2. the factual findings in the contested report are unclear, incomplete, or the original sentencing officer failed to address crucial circumstances of the case,

3. the original charges were incorrectly applied, or the decision violates established departmental regulations, or

4. the imposed punitive action is clearly disproportionate to the committed infraction.

D. An acceptance of an appeal shall result in modification of the reprimand and/or modification of the charges, or complete revocation of the contested report.

E. The reviewing officer shall deny the appeal if no circumstances stipulated in §5. C exist.

F. The decision of the reviewing officer must be accurately recorded in the judgment, which must then be sent to the appellant and stored in the internal database.

G. The judgment must be filed whether the appeal is dismissed, denied or accepted.

H. The judgment must contain

1. numeral designation of the case,

2. designation of the reviewing officer and date of the completion of the review,

3. decision of the reviewing officer and the provision this decision is based on,

4. reasoning of the decision, which must entail
   i. designation of the contested report, including the contextualization and facts of the case in that report,
   ii. detailed circumstances of the appeal,
   iii. detailed description of the procedures and actions taken during the review of the appeal, and
   iv. summarized rationale of the decision based on the former,

5. and information on the additional legal remedies.

A. Adjudicated appeals that have not been dismissed are final and not subject to further appellation.

B. If it is reasonably believed that procedural regulations stipulated by §4., §5., or the Universal Appellate Regulations have been violated by the reviewing officer, the appellant may contact the Chairman of the Criminal Review Office and/or the Ethics Committee Central Command and inform them of this fact within 15 days after receipt of the judgment. Based on the findings, the former may grant an exemption to §6. A and overturn the judgment.

C. The appellant may seek the application of extraordinary legal remedies regardless of whether an appeal has been submitted or not, if they are facilitated by effective legislation.

A. Expungement of a report is an extraordinary legal remedy.

B. An expungement may be requested on the grounds of sincere remorse, provided that at least one year has passed since the ethical infraction was committed, and the requester has not committed any other ethical infractions during this period.

C. The expungement request shall be submitted through the designated ticket sent to the Ethics Committee.

D. The expungement request must contain the designation of the contested report, the reasoning as to why the expungement should be granted, and a formal statement detailing the requester's rehabilitation and continued good conduct.

E. The reviewing officer shall dismiss the expungement request if it is determined that the expungement request

1. is clearly unfounded and unjustified,

2. contains substantial defects,

3. is submitted by a person other than the offender in the report in question, or

4. is submitted by a person who is currently ineligible from submitting the expungement request.

F. The reviewing officer shall deny the request if it is determined that the expressed remorse is insincere or the requester is not sufficiently rehabilitated.

G. If an expungement request is denied, the requester is ineligible from submitting another expungement request for the same report for a period of 30 days following the denial.

H. An accepted expungement request establishes a probationary period which is not to exceed three months. Committing any ethical infraction that amounts to a reprimand in the form of a Written Warning or a Class-E suspension within this probationary period shall result in an immediate revocation of the expungement and will prohibit the requester from submitting another request for the expunged report for the duration of one year.

I. The reviewing officer who granted the expungement is responsible for monitoring the requester's conduct and revoking the expungement in the event that the requester violates the probationary period as dictated by §7. H.

J. The requester shall be notified of the final decision through a formal judgment containing all essential elements, as stipulated by §5. H.

K. While reviewing the expungement request, the reviewing officer is obligated to

1. review the expungement request without any undue delay,

2. verify that the requester has maintained a clean disciplinary record for the mandated period of time, and

3. evaluate the provided written statement to assess the sincerity of the expressed remorse, without re-investigating the facts of the original infraction.