Answer: C- a notice of appeal
Explanation:
To appeal to a state appellate court, one needs to file a notice of appeal to the court. It is mainly the losing party in a decision who is supposed to appeal to a state court but different cases are handled differently depending of the crime involved. Like, in case of a civil case either of two sides can appeal at the next level.
Appellate courts are courts that are supposed to hear such cases which have already been tried in a trial-lvel or any other lower court.