SAN DIEGO -- Attorneys for David Westerfield have filed an appeal of his death penalty conviction, according to a 450-page legal brief filed in California Supreme Court and obtained this week by 10News.

In 2002, Westerfield was convicted of kidnapping and killing his 7-year-old neighbor, Danielle Van Dam.

The trial was covered live and transmitted all over the world. In the appeal, Westerfield's lawyers claim that the media was creating a "lynch mob mentality" and that the jury was "under siege."

David Steinberg, a professor at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law, reviewed the brief for 10News and agreed.

"This trial was conducted under a microscope," he said.

However, Steinberg said he does not buy into that as a very persuasive argument.

"Trial publicity is not your best argument for reversing a conviction," said Steinberg. "Your best bet typically is that there's some evidence introduced that should not have been."

Westerfield's attorneys argued that search warrants were illegally obtained. They also argued that trial judge William Mudd abused his discretion many times by not granting motions for a mistrial, not sequestering the jury, keeping some jurors despite defense protests and not excluding child pornography charges in a capital murder case.

In the appeal, 28 reasons were listed for reversal, including the argument that the California death penalty is unconstitutional.

There are more than 700 inmates on death row and 13 have been executed in the past two decades. No one was executed for the 25 years leading up to 1992 because it was judged unconstitutional during that time.

Death penalty appeals are usually successful. There is a 70 percent success rate for these appeals, but Steinberg believes the Westerfield team has a real uphill battle.

"I would be very surprised if there is a reversal… either of his guilt or on the death penalty," he said.