Post-Conviction Toolkit: Sentencing Memoranda, Appeals, and Habeas Petitions

Summary. Letters, motions, outlines, and worksheets from presentence objections through federal habeas.

Tool 1 — Presentence report objection letter

To: [Probation Officer] · cc: [AUSA/prosecutor], [court] Re: [Defendant], Case No. [ ] — Objections to the draft presentence report

A. Guidelines objections

¶	Report states	Objection	Correct calculation	Support
	Base offense level [ ]
	[+4] leadership role	The record contains no finding of organizational leadership, recruitment, decision-making authority, or a larger share; relative culpability is insufficient.	Remove	Tr. [ ]; PSR ¶ [ ]
	Criminal history point for [case]	That case was dismissed	Remove	certified disposition, Ex. A
	Resulting range		[corrected range]

B. Factual objections (not affecting the range, but affecting classification and programming)

¶	Report states	Correction	Support
	"history of violence"	No conviction or adjudication involving violence; the referenced incident was [ ]	Ex. B
	gang affiliation	Defendant has never been validated; the source is [ ]	Ex. C

C. Additions requested. [Employment history; treatment history; medical conditions; caregiving responsibilities; education.]

Defendant requests that unresolved disputes be resolved by the Court or expressly disclaimed as not affecting the sentence, and that corrections be made before the report is transmitted to the Bureau of Prisons.

Tool 2 — Sentencing memorandum skeleton

I. Request. Defendant respectfully requests a sentence of [specific term], followed by [supervision term], with [conditions].

II. Guidelines. [The correctly calculated range, after the objections at Tab A, is ___.]

III. The person. [Two to three pages. Where the defendant came from; what happened to them; what they have built; who depends on them. Documents, not adjectives — cite the records at the tabs.]

IV. The offense in context. [What happened, without minimizing; the defendant's actual role; what distinguishes this conduct within the offense category.]

V. The statutory factors. a. Nature and circumstances; history and characteristics — [with the evaluation and records]. b. Seriousness, respect for law, just punishment — [address it directly]. c. Deterrence — [general and specific; engage the evidence on marginal deterrence]. d. Protection of the public — [risk factors and what the plan addresses]. e. Treatment and training needs — [the specific program and its availability]. f. Kinds of sentences available — [alternatives]. g. Unwarranted disparities — [comparable sentences, with citations]. h. Restitution — [amount, schedule, ability to pay].

VI. The plan. [Housing · employment · treatment with an acceptance letter · supervision · family support.]

VII. Conclusion. A sentence of [term] is sufficient but not greater than necessary because [two sentences].

Tabs: evaluation · records · letters · treatment acceptance · employment verification · comparable sentences.

Tool 3 — Character letter request and allocution outline

Letter request

Would you write a short letter to the judge about [name]?

What helps most: how long and in what capacity you have known them; one or two specific things you have actually seen — a time they were reliable, helped someone, handled a setback; changes you have observed; and whether you will continue to be involved after sentencing (a job, a place to live, support).

Please: use your own words; state that you are aware of the conviction and what you understand it to concern; be brief (one page); date and sign it.

Please avoid: arguing the facts; criticizing the victim, the police, or the prosecution; or saying they would never do such a thing.

Allocution outline (three minutes, spoken)

1. Address the court — "Your Honor, thank you for letting me speak."
2. Accountability, in one or two sentences. What you did. No qualifiers, no "but."
3. The harm. Name it, specifically, and address the victim if present and if counsel advises.
4. What has changed. Concrete and already begun — the program completed, the job, the counseling, the time sober.
5. What you will do. Specific, with the plan the memorandum describes.
6. Close. Brief. No plea for sympathy, no criticism of anyone.

Rehearse it aloud three times. Do not read it.

Tool 4 — Notice of appeal and transcript order

Notice

Notice is hereby given that [Defendant] appeals to the [Court of Appeals] from the [judgment / sentence] entered in this action on [date].

[Signature, date] · File within 14 days (federal) / [state deadline].

Transcript order — order ALL of it

Please prepare transcripts of the following proceedings in [Case No.]:

• Arraignment / initial appearance — [date]
• Detention hearing — [date]
• All pretrial motions hearings — [dates]
• Suppression hearing — [date]
• Jury selection / voir dire — [date]
• Opening statements — [date]
• All trial testimony — [dates]
• All bench and sidebar conferences
• Charge conference — [date]
• Jury instructions as read
• Jury questions, readbacks, and responses
• Closing arguments
• Verdict
• Sentencing, including rulings on all objections — [date]

[Indigent: request preparation at public expense.] Please advise whether bench and sidebar conferences were recorded; if any were not, so state.

Tool 5 — Issue screening worksheet

Rule: three developed issues beat eleven.

Tool 6 — Appellate brief outline

Statement of the issues. [One sentence each, framed to suggest the answer.] Statement of the case. [Procedural history, then facts — record citation for every sentence.] Summary of argument. [One paragraph per issue.] Argument. I. [Issue]. A. Standard of review. [State it and cite it first.] B. The law. C. Application to this record. [Cite the transcript relentlessly.] D. The error was not harmless because [address it affirmatively — do not wait for the government]. Conclusion. [Specific relief: vacate the sentence and remand for resentencing / reverse and remand for a new trial.]

Tool 7 — Trial file demand

To: [Trial counsel] · Re: [Client], Case No. [ ] — Request for the complete client file

Enclosed is [client]'s signed authorization. On [client]'s behalf, I request the complete file, including: all discovery received; police reports and witness statements; investigator reports, invoices, and notes; correspondence with the client, the prosecution, and any expert; counsel's notes; motions filed and drafted; plea offers and communications about them; expert materials; trial preparation materials; exhibits; and any memoranda regarding strategy.

The file belongs to the client. Please produce it within [14] days. If any item is withheld, please identify it and state the basis.

[Escalation if unanswered: second demand citing the state bar's client-file guidance · bar complaint · motion in the post-conviction proceeding for an order directing production.]

Tool 8 — Police file records request and preservation demand

To: [Agency] Records Custodian · Re: Public records request and preservation demand — [case], [date], [report no.]

PRESERVATION DEMAND. This matter is the subject of post-conviction proceedings. Preserve, and do not destroy pursuant to any retention schedule, all records described below and all physical and biological evidence associated with this case.

REQUEST. Please provide:

1. All incident and supplemental reports, including drafts;
2. All officer notes and rough notes;
3. All witness statements, written, recorded, or summarized, including of witnesses not called;
4. All photographs and video, including body-worn and dash camera footage;
5. CAD and dispatch logs and recordings;
6. Evidence logs and chain of custody records;
7. Laboratory reports and bench notes, calibration and maintenance records, and proficiency testing;
8. Identification procedure records — photo arrays, lineup documentation, admonitions given, and witness confidence statements;
9. Any record of benefits, consideration, leniency, or agreements provided to any witness or informant;
10. Any record of prior complaints or disciplinary findings regarding testifying officers, to the extent disclosable;
11. The retention schedule applicable to each category above.

If any record is withheld, identify it and state the exemption claimed. [Request a fee waiver if applicable.]

Tool 9 — Witness affidavit template

I, [name], state under penalty of perjury:

1. I am [age] and reside at [address].
2. I know [defendant] because [ ], and have known [him/her/them] since [ ].
3. On [date], I [what you saw, heard, or know — specific, first-person, without argument].
4. [Continue chronologically. One fact per paragraph.]
5. I was available and willing to testify at [defendant]'s trial. I lived at [address] and could be reached at [phone].
6. No one representing [defendant] ever contacted me [or: I was contacted by ___ on ___ and told ___].
7. If called as a witness, I would testify to the facts stated above.

[Signature, date, notarization]

Paragraphs 5 and 6 are the ones that make the affidavit useful. An affidavit without them shows what a witness knows but not that counsel could have found them.

Tool 10 — Ineffective assistance claim structure

CLAIM [N]: Trial counsel was ineffective in failing to [specific act].

1. What counsel failed to do. [Specifically: "failed to interview Maria Vega, whose name and address appeared in the supplemental report at Exhibit 3, which counsel possessed."]

2. What counsel knew. [Cite the file: the report, the client's letter, the discovery index — establishing that the information was available.]

3. No strategic basis. [Counsel's explanation, if given, and why it is not a reasonable strategy — or the absence of any explanation, plus the absence of any investigation that could have informed one. Note that a decision not to investigate cannot be strategic where no investigation was done.]

4. What the investigation would have produced. [The affidavit at Exhibit ___; the records at Exhibit ___; the expert report at Exhibit ___.]

5. Prejudice. [Describe the trial that would have occurred: the testimony, the cross-examination that becomes available, the closing argument. Then: "There is a reasonable probability — one sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome — that the result would have been different, because the government's case rested entirely on ___, and ___ would have ___."]

6. Relief. Vacatur and a new trial, or an evidentiary hearing.

Tool 11 — Brady claim structure

CLAIM [N]: The prosecution suppressed material exculpatory and impeaching evidence.

1. The evidence. [Describe it and attach it — the undisclosed statement, the benefit provided to the witness, the report.] 2. It is favorable. [Exculpatory because ___; impeaching because ___.] 3. It was suppressed. [It was not produced; the defense file at Exhibit ___ contains no copy; counsel's affidavit at Exhibit ___ confirms it was never received. Good or bad faith is irrelevant, and the duty extends to evidence known to police.] 4. Materiality. [A reasonable probability of a different result, described concretely — the cross-examination, the alternative theory, the effect on the central witness.] 5. Timeliness and default. [When and how the evidence was obtained; why it could not have been discovered earlier with due diligence — which addresses both the limitations period and any procedural default.]

Tool 12 — State post-conviction petition outline

I. Procedural history. [Charge, trial or plea, sentence, direct appeal and result, dates of finality.] II. Timeliness. [The applicable deadline and why this petition is timely.] III. Claims. [Each claim in the structures above, with exhibits.] IV. Exhaustion / preservation. [Each federal claim is presented here and will be presented to the state's highest court.] V. Request for an evidentiary hearing. Petitioner requests a hearing on Claims [ ]. The following witnesses would testify: [names and the substance]. The following documents would be introduced: [ ]. These facts are outside the trial record and cannot be resolved on the pleadings. VI. Offer of proof [if a hearing is denied — state precisely what the evidence would have shown, so the denial is reviewable]. VII. Request for counsel and for investigative funds, if available. VIII. Relief requested.

Attach everything. After Shinn, this record is the record.

Tool 13 — Habeas deadline worksheet

Alternative start dates to check: newly recognized retroactive right · date the factual predicate could have been discovered with due diligence · removal of a state-created impediment.

Tool 14 — Exhaustion chart

A claim never presented to the state's highest court is unexhausted. A claim the state courts refused to hear on an adequate and independent state ground is defaulted — identify the cause-and-prejudice or actual-innocence argument now.

Tool 15 — Compassionate release / sentence reduction motion

1. Exhaustion. A request was submitted to the Warden on [date]; [it was denied on ___ / more than 30 days have elapsed]. Exhibit A. 2. Extraordinary and compelling reasons. [Medical: diagnosis, prognosis, care required, and what the facility cannot provide — Exhibit B, physician statement. / Age and time served. / Death or incapacitation of the caregiver of a minor child — Exhibit C. / Other recognized ground.] 3. The sentencing factors support release. [Time served relative to the sentence · changes in applicable law · institutional record: disciplinary history, programs completed, work evaluations — Exhibit D · age-related recidivism · nature of the offense in context.] 4. Release plan. [Residence at ___, with ___ · medical care arranged at ___, with insurance/coverage ___ · supervision proposed · transportation.] Exhibit E. 5. Not a danger. [Specific: age, condition, record, plan.] 6. Relief. Reduction of the term to time served, with [supervision term and conditions].

Tool 16 — Counsel request letter (to a clinic, innocence project, or defender office)

Re: Request for post-conviction representation — [name], [ID no.], [facility]

1. The conviction. [Offense, court, date, sentence.] 2. Current posture. [Direct appeal decided ___; state post-conviction ___; deadlines: ___.] The next deadline is [date]. 3. The specific reason to doubt this conviction. [This is the paragraph that matters. Not "I am innocent." Instead: "The only eyewitness described the perpetrator as approximately 5'6"; I am 6'2". Her initial statement, attached, was never disclosed to my trial counsel, whose file contains no copy."] 4. What evidence exists and where. [Names of witnesses never interviewed · records never obtained · physical evidence that could be tested and whether it still exists.] 5. What has been done so far. [Requests sent, responses received, documents obtained — attached.] 6. Contact. [Family member's name, phone, and address for correspondence.]

Attach: the judgment · the appellate decision · the key document, if there is one.

Related documents

• Sentencing, Appeals, and Post-Conviction Relief
• Appealing a Conviction and Seeking Post-Conviction Relief
• Sentencing and Post-Conviction Checklist
• Appellate Practice Toolkit
• Expungement and Record Relief Toolkit
• Pretrial Release Toolkit

Templates are starting points, not filings. Sentencing schemes, appellate rules, and post-conviction procedures differ substantially between the federal system and each state. Consult counsel licensed in the relevant jurisdiction.