July 23, 2012 Update on Ajay's Appeal

On July 23, 2012, the appellate court granted Ajay's attorney's motion to file an over-sized brief. This is wonderful as the brief is over 75,000 words and the allowable filing size is 25,500 words. 

There are several reasons why the brief is so long. The trial transcript (record) is over 10,000 pages, larger than the majority of capital cases. This is due in part to the prosecutor’s strategy of stacking 92 counts against Ajay, instead of charging 1 count for continuous alleged abuse.  Additionally, there were a plethora of procedural errors that occurred in Ajay’s trial. However, Ajay's attorney only chose to address the very large significant errors. 

A note regarding appeals and the appellate process:
In the California Court of Appeal, the appellant (defendant) files what is called the Appellant's Opening Brief. The Attorney General's office is the respondent and files a Response Brief. The appellant then allowed to reply to what the attorney general's office has written in what is called the Reply Brief. After that there is oral arguments. Then the judges will decide.