The Opening Appeal Brief, submitted 2/08/08, is available here (77 pages).
The Government Response Brief, submitted 4/08/08, is available here (105 pages).
The Reply Brief to the Government Brief, submitted 5/14/08, is available here (26 pages).

We now await a date for oral arguments to be set, most likely for some time in the fall.

What is an appeal?:

It’s not a retrial. The appellate court does not decide a defendant’s innocence or guilt, it decides whether the court proceedings were conducted according to the law. The appeal lawyers are limited to the official record of proceedings and they can only appeal things that were initially objected to by the defense lawyers (with some exceptions, as you will see from the brief). The brief is very readable, not much legalize, just a couple of pages on sentencing issues that were difficult going.

Steps in the appeal process from here:

The appeal was filed on Friday, February 8th, 2008, with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The prosecution filed it’s response on Wednesday, April 9th, 2008. Dr. Dhafir’s lawyers, Peter Goldberger and Barry Boss will file a reply to this in the next few weeks.

A few months after this reply is submitted, the defense and prosecution will be invited to present oral arguments before a panel of 3 judges. Oral arguments are likely to be just a few hours long and the public is welcome to attend, but Dr. Dhafir won’t have the opportunity to attend.

The decision on the appeal will not be taken from the bench on that day; it will likely take a few weeks or months before a written opinion deciding the appeal is given.

Go to: Dr. Dhafir’s Opening Appeal Brief. (Filed 2/08/08.)

Go to: The Government Response to Dr. Dhafir’s Opening Brief. (Filed 4/08/08.)

Go to: The Reply Brief to the Government Response. (Filed 5/14/08.)

Go to: A Federal Criminal Appeal Primer: A Guide for Clients and their Family and Friends.