Underdog Blog – Fairfax Criminal Defense Lawyer | Virginia DUI Attorney

Until George Bush I was voted out of office, the federal government spiritedly prosecuted obscenity, often leading to long prison terms. The Clinton administration did an about face and barely initiated any new obscenity cases, preferring to focus on child pornography and adults seeking sex with minors....

A 5-4 Supreme Court majority is satisfied to give a trial judge carte blanche whether to grant a habeas corpus/post conviction hearing to a death row inmate complaining that his trial lawyer was ineffective for following his instructions not to present mitigating evidence at sentencing....

Image from Virginia Forestry Dept’s website. Virginia’s Supreme Court releases a package of appellate opinions about every seven to eight weeks. Following is an overview of some of the court’s recent key criminal decisions: A passenger’s possession of a bottle of illegal drugs — without...

The Court of Appeals is Virginia’s intermediate appellate court. Here is an overview of some recent key criminal decisions from the Virginia Court of Appeals: – Whither Boykin in District Court? This month, Virginia’s Court of Appeals confirmed — as required by the Supreme Court in...

United States courts generally treat one’s home as the closest thing to one’s castle, by making limited exceptions for warrantless home searches. (On the other hand, search warrants ordinarily are too easy for police officers to obtain, with the honesty of warrant applications generally taken by...

The only way to know if a defendant will win is to go to trial. This month yielded another example of why it is critical to go to trial when the outcome from an innocent plea is not likely to be any worse than the...

Beware having the accused testify in Virginia state court. When the accused testifies there, the prosecutor has appellate authority enabling the trial judge to permit cross examination of the defendant beyond the scope of direct examination. The case is Drumgoole v. Commonwealth, 26 Va. App....

Convictions for marijuana and other drugs should not be permitted to cut off student financial aid. (Image from public domain.) Criminal defendants need to consider not only the direct consequences of a criminal conviction (e.g., the potential of incarceration, fines, probation, and higher sentences for...

A drug possession conviction requires probable cause to seize the alleged drugs; proof that the seized item constitutes illegal drugs; and proof beyond a reasonable doubt of knowledge, dominion and control over the alleged drugs. When I started doing criminal defense over fifteen years ago,...