United States v. John C. Brizendine, Charles M. Forsyth, James S. McDonnell Iii, and Sherman Pruitt, Jr.

Opinion for the court filed by Circuit Judge J. SKELLY WRIGHT.

J. SKELLY WRIGHT, Circuit Judge:

To avoid the delays and inefficiencies of piecemeal litigation, 28 U.S.C. § 1291 (1976) limits appellate jurisdiction to “final decisions” of the District Courts. Although the statute has been judicially construed to allow interlocutory review of a small class of cases in which post-judgment review would be too late, the exceptions must be narrowly defined to preserve the vitality of the rule. We hold today that we lack jurisdiction to review appeals by defendants in criminal cases from the District…