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Same court; two actors; two different appeal bond results
Photo from website of U.S. District Court (W.D. Mi.). Wesley Snipes and Paul Little (a.k.a. Max Hardcore) both are actors — very different actors, at that — with pending federal criminal appeals from the Middle District of Florida. Their similarities end there both with the...
Halloween treats galore today from Virginia’s Supreme Court
Image from Virginia Forestry Dept’s website. Halloween treats came before sundown today with the following favorable criminal rulings from Virginia’s Supreme Court, which issues opinions around every six weeks: – Virginia’s Supreme Court reversed a rape conviction where not more than a scintilla of evidence...
Max Hardcore’s Obscenity Sentencing- Fairfax criminal lawyer weighs in
Max Hardcore -- the stage name for Paul LIttle -- in 2008 received a 46 month prison sentence on his federal court obscenity conviction that followed a jury trial. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer deeply opposed to obscenity due to free expression and First Amendment...
The dragnet of drug arrests
DEA image in the public domain. In college, on-campus drug use — and sometimes drug sales, apparently — ran rampant. I would sometimes be right in the room or in the dorm hallway as others smoked pot or, in one instance, snorted cocaine. If I did not...
Defending online copyright infringement
On September 19, 2008, I went to sentencing with my client for this online copyright infringement case. Fortunately, the judge varied substantially below the sentencing guidelines, saying that they are excessive for my client’s case, after having addressed such factors as the sentences of co-conspirators that...
First Amendment slays spam conviction
Computer hard drive. (Image from Pacific Northwest Laboratory’s website). Thanks to the lawyer(s) who last Friday won a First Amendment-based reversal of a spam conviction in Jaynes v. Com., ___ Va. ___ (Sept. 12, 2008), http://www.courts.state.va.us/opinions/opnscvwp/1062388.pdf. The Jaynes victory reverses the February 2008 Virginia Supreme Court...
When Miranda Does and Does Not Come to the Rescue
Bill of Rights. (From the public domain.) Many of my clients complain that the police never read them their rights. I wish the police always had that obligation when questioning a person, but that is not the situation. Generally, the police must advise a suspect of...
Why travel a thousand miles to learn to be more real?
In the middle of the then-four week Trial Lawyers College in its second year, I asked myself: "I have come all the way to a ranch in Wyoming miles from the nearest paved road to learn that the essence to being a great trial lawyer is...
Red lights, dogs and the Fourth Circuit
Bill of Rights. (From the public domain.) Police love when suspects drive cars. The driver is bound to violate one traffic law or another, thus justifying a police stop of the car, and an attempt to reveal criminal activity afoot. Police also love to bring "drug" dogs to attempt...
How Can a Proper Terry Patdown Find Crack Cocaine?
Bill of Rights. Recently during a suppression hearing in a drug case, the police officer testified that controlled dangerous substances fell to the ground from my client’s pants as the cop conducted a pat down for weapons, on the cop’s claimed belief that this was a...