Federal courts of appeals. Federal court of appeals also known as circuit courts are

the second tier -- so here's the first; here's the second tier -- in the federal

court system.

Federal courts of appeals only have appellate jurisdiction ... only have

appellate jurisdiction. Appellate jurisdiction means that they only hear

cases that are on appeals. They only hear appeals cases. In other words, they don't

have original jurisdiction. Cases never originate at federal courts of appeals.

Federal courts of appeals hear cases usually that are appealed from federal

district courts, and once a case is appealed to a federal court of appeals,

there is no longer a question of criminality involved. In other words,

someone is accused of violating a federal criminal statute; say someone is

accused of robbing a bank, and that person is tried in a federal district

court, and the person loses and is convicted of breaking a federal

criminal statute. That person and his or her attorney believed that their

constitutional rights are somehow violated -- say they believe that they

didn't have an unbiased jury because one of someone's constitutional rights if

they've been accused of a crime is to have an unbiased jury, and this person

believes that they didn't have an unbiased jury, so what they can do is...

they can appeal to the second tier. That's a federal court of appeals, but

the question that that court would be answering would have nothing to do with

whether or not this person robbed the bank. That's what I mean

when I say, there's no longer a question of guilt or innocence. Whether

or not this person robbed the bank is not in the question at. It's not part

of the legal question that's being answered. What's being answered is whether or not

this person received a fair trial at the Federal Court of Appeals. So the question

is specifically in this example,

"Did this person or rather was the jury at this person's trial impartial or was

it biased?" And so that's the question that the federal court of appeals will

be looking to answer, not whether or not this person is guilty or innocent.

What does this mean? It means that at federal courts of appeals,

there is no new evidence introduced because this person's guilt or innocence

is no longer a question, so there's no evidence that's introduced.

There's no witnesses called to the stand. The process at an appeals court is much

different than the process at a trial court. What happens in appeals courts,

including the United States Supreme Court, is lawyers stand up and present

their case to a panel of judges usually three or five judges. At the Supreme

Court it's nine justices, but a lawyer stands up and appeals to a bank of

judges and argues their case and the judges ask questions of the attorney -- we

say that it is conversational in tone. There's not the same sense of high drama

that might take place at a trial court, so at federal courts of appeals,

there's no new evidence that's introduced; they only have appellate jurisdiction;

they only hear cases on appeals; and those appeals are looking to ask rather

looking to answer questions like, "Was this person's civil

liberties or civil rights somehow violated?" They're not looking to answer

the question whether or not this person is innocent or guilty of the crime that

they were convicted of in the lower court. Again, I know that this is likely

some concepts that you haven't heard of before or thought about before, so as

you know, you can always email me with further questions. OK? Talk to you soon

about United States Supreme Court -- my favorite. Ok, bye!