Information Packet for Post-Conviction Appeals (Kentucky)

This Department of Public Advocacy help guide, revised February 2020, is written for people in Kentucky Department of Corrections custody who need to appeal a state court order overruling a post-conviction motion. It states that all appeals of post-conviction motions other than death penalty challenges go to the Kentucky Court of Appeals, and notes that an appeal of a misdemeanor conviction attacked at district court level goes to circuit court instead. It directs readers to the applicable procedural rules, chiefly Rule 12 of the Rules of Criminal Procedure and Rules 73, 75 and 76 of the Rules of Civil Procedure, and warns that the rules impose strict limits on filing deadlines and document lengths, and that missing a deadline can result in the entire appeal being thrown out. The packet states it is not a substitute for individual legal advice and does not cover appeals from a state court order denying a writ of habeas corpus, pointing to KRS 419.130 for those.