No, Malice, he really doesn't have an appeal in progress unless and until he formally enters an application with the court for permission to appeal ^and is given permission".
There seems to be a lot of misunderstanding around that the CCRC has some sort of judicial standing. It doesn't. It's an independent public body whose purpose is to review possible miscarriages of justice in the criminal courts and refer appropriate cases to the appeal courts. And, by the way, the fact that they are looking at any individual case emphatically does not mean that they consider it to be a miscarriage of justice - obviously they cannot decide that until they have carried out the review.
Their stats to November 2014 put all this into perspective. Of 17, 183 cases in which they had completed consideration, only 558 were actually referred to the courts: that's 3.3%. And of cases that had been to the Court of Appeal and dealt with (543), 153 were upheld. Very crudely, that means Evans has a chance of around 3 in 100 that the CCRC will refer his case, and less than a 1:100 chance that his appeal will be upheld. Even if his appeal were upheld, it may then be remitted for rehearing which could result in him being convicted again.
Any convicted person is entitled to maintain their innocence. However, it is reasonable to view that as seriously problematic when, even on their own version of events, the case against them really does demonstrate them to be guilty beyond reasonable doubt. Can Evans seriously contend that he is innocent when the jury accepted on the facts that she was too drunk to consent, and when, on his own evidence, he entered his victim within such a short time of first meeting her that he realistically had no chance whatsoever of assessing whether she was in any fit state to make a decision on what she was doing? Bear in mind that the court cannot overturn the jury on findings of fact.