Potential clients often ask what are the chances that they will be successful if they appeal their case or if they have already lost their appeal, they pursue a federal habeas petition. The United States Department of Justice has studied this and produced an exhaustive report a link to which is included below.
According to the DOJ (Department of Justice), sixteen percent (16%) of appeals done by privately retained counsel are successful.
In addition, for those persons who lose their appeal and go on to file a federal habeas, another thirteen percent (13%) of those habeas cases are successful.
What this means, is that of those persons who file an appeal and a habeas, at least 29% are successful and the odds go up with retained counsel!
The DOJ study did not break down the habeas cases between those done pro se, that is, by the defendant himself without a lawyer, versus those done with retained counsel. In my experience the vast majority of habeas petitions are filed pro se. Imagine how many more habeas petitions would have been successful if they had been able to retain counsel. There is no right to court appointed counsel on a habeas unless an evidentiary hearing is granted after the petition is filed and responded to by the government, and that is unusual.
Of course each case is decided on its own merits and statistics are meaningless as to your individual case, but for those who want to know, these are the DOJ's own statistics. For a link to the DOJ study, click here.