A conviction in a federal courtroom in New England or Puerto Rico is not the last word. Everyone convicted in a district court within the First Circuit has the right to appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston — a separate proceeding, decided by different judges under different rules than the trial that produced the conviction.
This guide explains federal criminal appeals in the First Circuit — the court itself, the five districts whose judgments it reviews, where the circuit stands on the criminal-law questions now dividing the federal courts, and how an appeal moves from notice to decision. Our principal attorney, Elizabeth Franklin-Best, has handled more than 100 federal appeals and is admitted to and has appeared in all twelve federal circuits and the U.S. Supreme Court, the First Circuit among them, accepting appointments pro hac vice in federal courts from coast to coast; Best Lawyers in America 2026 names her a “Best Lawyer” in Appellate Practice, and Chambers USA 2026 ranks the firm for Litigation: White-Collar Crime & Government Investigations. This page sits within our federal courts directory; for the appellate process step by step, see our federal criminal appeals hub.
If you or a family member was convicted in federal court in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, or Puerto Rico, we offer a paid, one-hour initial consultation to walk through the record, the fourteen-day deadline, and the issues the First Circuit is most likely to engage.
Table of Contents
Quick Answer: First Circuit Appeals
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What does the First Circuit cover? | Federal appeals from Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Puerto Rico, heard at the Moakley Courthouse in Boston with regular sittings in San Juan. |
| How long do I have to file an appeal? | 14 days from entry of judgment under Rule 4(b) — and a rehearing petition is due 14 days after the panel decides. |
| Is an appeal a new trial? | No. The panel reviews the district-court record for legal error under defined standards of review — no witnesses, no new evidence. |
| Who decides the appeal? | A three-judge panel drawn from the circuit’s six authorized judgeships; rehearing en banc by the full court is rare. |
| Is the firm admitted to the First Circuit? | Yes — Elizabeth Franklin-Best’s admissions include the First Circuit, and we handle appeals from all five of its districts. |
Key Takeaways
- The First Circuit hears federal appeals from Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Puerto Rico from its seat at the John Joseph Moakley U.S. Courthouse in Boston.
- With six authorized judgeships under 28 U.S.C. § 44, it is the smallest regional circuit — a compact bench that keeps its precedent unusually stable.
- The notice of appeal in a criminal case is due 14 days after entry of judgment; a rehearing petition is due 14 days after the panel’s decision.
- Argued cases normally receive 15 minutes per side under Local Rule 34.0, and the court also sits in San Juan, Puerto Rico, each November and March.
- Recent decisions such as Abdelaziz (Varsity Blues fraud reversals), Trahan (mandatory minimums), and Langston (§ 922(g)(1)) show how much preservation and circuit position drive outcomes here.
- In fiscal year 2025, First Circuit district courts granted 25.0% of compassionate-release motions decided — well above the 14.1% national rate (USSC data).
- Each of the circuit’s five district courts has its own individually researched guide linked below.
- Elizabeth Franklin-Best practices before the First Circuit, and we handle trial defense, appeals, and post-conviction litigation throughout the circuit.
The First Circuit at a Glance
The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit is the federal appellate court for the northeastern corner of the country. It hears appeals from the federal district courts in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Puerto Rico. Its seat is the John Joseph Moakley U.S. Courthouse at 1 Courthouse Way in Boston, and under its local rules the court also holds sittings in San Juan, Puerto Rico, typically each November and March.
Geographically compact and the smallest of the regional circuits — Congress has authorized just six judgeships for it under 28 U.S.C. § 44 — the First Circuit nonetheless handles the full range of federal criminal appeals — from fraud and other white-collar offenses to drug, firearms, and immigration-related prosecutions, along with the sentencing and post-conviction questions those cases generate. Appeals here are decided by three-judge panels drawn from that small bench, with en banc review reserved for the rare question the full court takes up.
For a person convicted in a district court within these five jurisdictions, the First Circuit is the court that will review the case on direct appeal. Its decisions are binding precedent on the district courts within the circuit, which means First Circuit law shapes how federal criminal cases are litigated throughout the region.
How a Federal Criminal Appeal Proceeds
A First Circuit criminal appeal runs on the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure overlaid with the court’s own rulebook — the First Circuit local rules and internal operating procedures that govern everything from brief format to argument scheduling in Boston.
An appeal begins with a notice of appeal under Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(b), due within fourteen days of the entry of judgment in a criminal case. Our guide to the federal direct appeal walks through this first step in detail. Fourteen days pass quickly after a sentencing in Boston, Providence, Concord, Portland, or San Juan — treat the deadline as the first strategic decision of the appeal.
Next, the district-court record is assembled and briefing begins: an opening brief laying out the claimed errors, the government’s response, and an optional reply. Because the First Circuit decides a meaningful share of its docket without argument, the opening brief frequently is the appeal — it must identify the error, demonstrate preservation, and fit each issue to its standard of review on the first pass.
If the panel sets the case for oral argument, counsel typically receives 15 minutes per side to answer the judges’ questions. The written decision that follows can affirm, reverse, vacate, or remand. A losing party may seek rehearing en banc before the full court — uncommon in a six-judgeship circuit — and may ultimately ask the Supreme Court to take the case by writ of certiorari.
One point deserves emphasis: a First Circuit appeal is not a second trial. No witnesses appear and no new evidence is taken; the panel measures the existing record against defined standards of review. Pure legal questions get fresh, no-deference review, factual findings are tested only for clear error, and discretionary calls — including most sentencing judgments — are reviewed for abuse of discretion. Matching each issue to the standard it can win under is the craft of appellate work, and our guides to the federal appellate process and the grounds for a federal appeal show how we approach it.
Applied Insight: The First Circuit polices preservation as strictly as any court we appear in. In United States v. Trahan, 111 F.4th 185 (1st Cir. 2024), it reiterated two rules every appellant should know before briefing begins: arguments raised for the first time in a reply brief are ordinarily waived, and facts in the presentence report that went unchallenged below are deemed admitted. What was objected to — and when — in the district court largely fixes what can be won in Boston.
Where the First Circuit Stands on Today’s Criminal-Law Questions
Circuit precedent is not background trivia — it decides cases. Because First Circuit rulings bind every federal district court from Bangor to San Juan, evaluating an appeal starts with knowing where this court stands on the questions currently dividing the federal circuits. A few positions matter most to the people who call us.
White-collar fraud. The First Circuit decided the leading appeal from the college-admissions prosecutions, United States v. Abdelaziz, 68 F.4th 1 (1st Cir. 2023), vacating two parents’ fraud convictions. The court held that honest-services fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1346 reaches only the bribe-and-kickback core of the doctrine — not payments made to the very institution said to have been betrayed — and it refused to treat university admissions slots as categorically “property” under the mail and wire fraud statutes. That reasoning tracks the Supreme Court’s narrowing of fraud theories in Ciminelli and Percoco, and it gives defendants in white-collar cases a potent First Circuit authority on the limits of property fraud.
Mandatory minimums and sentencing facts. In United States v. Trahan, 111 F.4th 185 (1st Cir. 2024), the court read the phrase “relating to” in 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(b)(2) broadly, so a prior state conviction can trigger a ten-year mandatory minimum even without matching the federal definition. Trahan also confirmed that Alleyne errors — facts that raise a mandatory minimum without ever being found by a jury — are reviewed for harmlessness in this circuit, with the government required to prove a preserved error harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.
Compassionate release. For four years the First Circuit was among the circuits most open to compassionate release: United States v. Ruvalcaba, 26 F.4th 14 (1st Cir. 2022), allowed district judges to weigh nonretroactive changes in sentencing law, case by case, in deciding whether reasons are extraordinary and compelling. On May 28, 2026, the Supreme Court closed that route in Rutherford v. United States, holding that nonretroactive changes in law do not qualify, and its companion case, Fernandez, confirmed that challenges to the conviction itself belong in post-conviction proceedings rather than a compassionate-release motion. Movants in this circuit now need grounds — medical, age-based, family, or abuse — that survive Rutherford.
Firearms and the Second Amendment. The circuits remain divided over whether felon-in-possession liability under § 922(g)(1) is constitutional in every application after Bruen — the en banc Third Circuit in Range said no as to one nonviolent offender, while the Fifth and Ninth Circuits have upheld the statute. In United States v. Hemani, No. 24-1234 (U.S. June 18, 2026), the Supreme Court struck § 922(g)(3)’s disarmament of an unlawful drug user as applied but expressly declined to decide § 922(g)(1), leaving the felon-in-possession split — and Range with it — intact. The First Circuit has not resolved the merits. In United States v. Langston, 110 F.4th 408 (1st Cir. 2024), it held only that any error is not “clear or obvious” under plain-error review, given the Supreme Court’s repeated description of felon-in-possession laws as presumptively lawful. The practical lesson for federal firearms cases in this circuit: the constitutional argument must be raised in the district court, or it is functionally lost.
The First Circuit by the Numbers
Numbers frame strategy. The First Circuit operates with six authorized judgeships — the smallest complement of any regional circuit — so three-judge panels drawn from one small bench decide nearly everything. That structure keeps the circuit’s law unusually coherent: the judges applying a precedent are often the same judges who wrote it, which makes careful, circuit-specific briefing especially valuable.
The circuit’s district courts also stand out in the sentencing data. In fiscal year 2025, courts within the First Circuit granted 14 of the 56 compassionate-release motions they decided — a 25.0% grant rate against a national average of 14.1% (394 of 2,795 decisions), according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s FY2025 compassionate-release data. Only a few circuits ran higher. Data guarantees nothing in an individual case, but it shows judges here engage seriously with well-supported motions.
One more figure shapes appellate practice everywhere, this circuit included: roughly 98% of sentenced federal defendants plead guilty (USSC, fiscal year 2025). Most First Circuit criminal appeals are therefore sentencing appeals — Guidelines calculations, mandatory minimums, reasonableness — or issues preserved by conditional plea, the territory mapped in our guide to the grounds for a federal appeal.
En Banc Review and Oral Argument in the First Circuit
Most appeals end with the panel’s decision. A losing party may petition for panel rehearing or rehearing en banc, and in a criminal case that petition is due within 14 days after entry of judgment. Rehearing en banc requires a majority vote of the circuit’s active judges — and in a court whose full bench is barely larger than a panel, it is reserved for questions of exceptional importance or genuine intra-circuit conflict.
Oral argument follows the court’s local rules: argued cases normally receive 15 minutes per side, in Boston or at the court’s San Juan sittings in November and March. Plenty of appeals are decided on the briefs alone, which is why we treat the brief — not the argument — as the center of gravity of the appellate process.
District Courts in the First Circuit
The First Circuit’s appellate jurisdiction covers five federal trial courts, from the District of Maine down the Atlantic coast to the District of Puerto Rico. We have researched each of them individually:
- District of Maine
- District of Massachusetts
- District of New Hampshire
- District of Rhode Island
- District of Puerto Rico
A conviction in any of these five district courts is appealed to the First Circuit. We defend federal cases in these districts at the trial level, brief and argue the appeals that follow in Boston, and litigate post-conviction matters in the district where the conviction was entered.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which states does the First Circuit cover?
The First Circuit reviews judgments from the federal district courts of Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Puerto Rico. Its home courthouse is the John Joseph Moakley U.S. Courthouse in Boston, and it also holds sittings in San Juan, Puerto Rico, typically each November and March.
How long do I have to appeal a federal conviction in the First Circuit?
Fourteen days from the entry of judgment, under Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(b). District courts can extend that window only in narrow circumstances, so anyone sentenced in a First Circuit district court should make the appeal decision immediately — waiting even a few weeks can close the door.
Is a federal appeal a second trial?
No. The First Circuit decides appeals on the district-court record and the parties’ briefs. No witnesses testify and no new evidence comes in; the panel asks whether legal error occurred below and whether it matters under the governing standard of review.
Who decides a First Circuit appeal?
A randomly assigned panel of three judges. The full court can rehear a case en banc, but with only six authorized judgeships the First Circuit grants en banc review sparingly. After the circuit rules, the remaining step is a petition for a writ of certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court.
What can the First Circuit do with my case?
It can affirm, reverse, vacate the conviction or sentence, or remand for further proceedings — a new trial, a resentencing, or additional fact-finding. The Varsity Blues appeal, in which the court vacated fraud convictions and sent the case back, shows the range of outcomes a single decision can produce.
What issues can be raised on appeal?
Evidentiary rulings, jury instructions, sufficiency challenges, constitutional claims, and sentencing errors are the staples. In the First Circuit, preservation is critical: unpreserved issues get only plain-error review, and arguments first raised in a reply brief are ordinarily treated as waived.
Is the firm admitted to practice in the First Circuit?
Yes. Elizabeth Franklin-Best’s appellate admissions include the First Circuit along with the U.S. Supreme Court and the other federal circuits, and we brief and argue federal criminal appeals arising from all five of the circuit’s districts.
Does the firm also handle district court cases in the First Circuit?
We do. Our practice in this circuit runs from trial-level defense in the district courts of Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Puerto Rico through direct appeal in Boston and post-conviction litigation back in the district of conviction.
How many judges does the First Circuit Court of Appeals have?
Six authorized judgeships — the fewest of any regional federal circuit, fixed by 28 U.S.C. § 44. Appeals are heard by three-judge panels, and the compact bench makes First Circuit precedent comparatively stable and full-court rehearing genuinely rare.
Where does the First Circuit hear oral argument?
Primarily at the John Joseph Moakley U.S. Courthouse at 1 Courthouse Way in Boston, with regular sittings in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in November and March under the court’s local rules. When argument is granted, each side normally receives fifteen minutes.
How often is compassionate release granted in the First Circuit?
In fiscal year 2025, district courts within the First Circuit granted 14 of the 56 compassionate-release motions they decided — 25.0 percent, well above the 14.1 percent national rate, according to U.S. Sentencing Commission data. Every motion still rises or falls on its own facts and the law after Rutherford.
Talk With a First Circuit Appeals Lawyer
An appeal to the First Circuit turns on what the record preserved, what the standards of review permit, and which issues this particular court has shown it will engage — questions we evaluate in a paid, one-hour initial consultation. Rule 4(b) allows just fourteen days from judgment to notice the appeal, so if sentencing has already happened in a Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, or Puerto Rico federal case, the clock is already running.