Banfield Sentenced to Life: What Happens Now and Can Any Appeal Save Him?

Brendan Banfield's trial is over. The conviction is in. Life without parole. But the legal fight continues — because when you're facing dying in prison, you appeal everything, challenge everything, exhaust every possible avenue. The question is whether any of it has a real chance of working.

Today on True Crime Today, defense attorney Bob Motta explains what comes next for Banfield and what his appellate lawyers are going to argue. Appeals aren't about convincing a new jury. They're about finding legal errors — things the trial judge did that violated procedure or the defendant's rights. Banfield's team has several potential arguments, but each faces serious obstacles.

The Juliana deal is one angle. Murder dropped to manslaughter, time served, she walks free after testifying. The defense will argue that's so coercive it taints her testimony. Bob explains why courts rarely buy that argument — as long as the jury knew about the deal, and this jury did, it's usually considered fair game.

The digital forensics issue is potentially stronger. The prosecution's own investigator got pulled off the case when his findings didn't align with their theory. If evidence was withheld from the defense, that's a Brady violation — one of the few things that can overturn a conviction. But proving it is hard, and getting a new trial is harder.

Bob also addresses the "harmless error" doctrine — the legal standard that lets courts acknowledge mistakes but say they wouldn't have changed the outcome anyway. It kills most appeals, and Banfield's team will have to prove otherwise.

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This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.