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Abolishing death penalty in Virginia- Fairfax criminal lawyer weighs in
Abolishing the death penalty has long been critical for me. Abolition is a major human rights, social justice, and racial justice issue. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer and longtime human rights activist, I bristled when eight years ago a fellow Virginia criminal defense lawyer called...
Death row inmates’ champion Steve Bright always inspires me
In 1991, I was still yearning to re-direct my career from the 25-lawyer corporate law firm that I had joined two years later, to something more meaningful. Ever since finishing law school, I went out of my way to meet birds of a professional and...
Dylann Roof’s quickly-imposed death sentence must not encourage quick death verdicts in other capital cases
Dylann Roof represented himself at his federal capital sentencing trial phase. He put forth no effort to prevent a death sentence, which helps explain how the jury quickly reached a death sentence verdict (within three hours of deliberation) at the sentencing phase The trial judge...
Challenging NCIC Information can be a Matter of Life or Death
Prosecutors commonly obtain National Crime Information Center (“NCIC”) reports of defendants’ criminal records. A colleague recently pointed out the unfairness of judges rejecting attacks on NCIC reports, because he asserts that the FBI, which runs the NCIC, disclaims responsibility for accuracy in NCIC reports. Certainly,...
Abolish the death penatly
Thanks to Barry Scheck for posting about the injustice of the death penalty, which continues to ensnare innocent people, and for referencing a recent in-depth New Yorker article presenting the case that Cameron Todd was innocent of arson, but still executed in 2004 for the...
Oppressive Virginia bail procedures can be remedied with proposed bill
Oppressive was a great way to describe so many aspects of the Virginia criminal legal system, before the death penalty was abolished, before a whirlwind of criminal defendant-friendly legislation was passed in the 2020 through 2021, and before more enlightened (but not always as defendant-friendly...
Federal executions resume- Fairfax criminal lawyer advocates abolition
Federal executions have resumed this year after a 17 year informal moratorium over the course of botched executions and court challenges. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that defending any murder or homicide case is demanding enough as is, and defending a capital punishment...
Juvenile life without parole- Fairfax criminal defense lawyer weighs in
Juvenile life without parole cannot be made mandatory by statute when the crime was committed under the age of eighteen. Miller v. Alabama, 567 U. S. 460 (2012); Montgomery v. Louisiana, 136 S.Ct. 718 (2016). As a Fairfax criminal defense lawyer, I know that after...
Capital defendants are humans – Treat them with dignity
Capital punishment in the United States has proceeded somewhat away from an arbitrary and capricious system that previously allowed judges rather than juries to decide a death sentence, and for people to be executed for crimes other than murder. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I...
“What legitimate purpose does it serve to hold any human being in solitary confinement for 40 years awaiting execution?”
Praised be Justice Stephen Breyer, apparently the United States Supreme Court's strongest skeptic on the death penalty's Constiutionality, who emphasized on April 24, 2017:
"What legitimate purpose does it serve to hold any human being in solitary confinement for 40 years awaiting execution? What does...