Art. 363 Effect of appeal

If you've been convicted of a crime and you still have the right to appeal your case, or you've already filed an appeal that's still being decided, you can't use a writ of habeas corpus to raise the same kind of issue instead. The court will turn down your habeas corpus request in that situation.

The idea here is to keep people from using two different legal tools to fight the same problem at the same time. If your appeal is the proper way to challenge what happened in your case, you need to use that process first and let it finish. Only after your appeal rights are used up, or if you never had the right to appeal in the first place, does habeas corpus become an option for these kinds of claims.

This rule matters because it affects timing. If you try to file for habeas corpus while your appeal is still active, the court will likely reject it, not because your claim is wrong, but because you're using the wrong process at the wrong time.