Criminal Defense
The audience is a gift- Engage the audience
Stagefright interferes tremendously with performers, persuaders and salespeople from benefiting from the gift of an audience. A live audience provides the actor with instant feedback that is not available to a musician in a studio, a politician in front of a camera in his or...
Criminal defendants must be well-groomed and properly dressed for court, and never be in jail attire
Virginia's Supreme Court affirmed a felony theft conviction by a jury, accompanied by a five-year prison sentence, despite defense counsel's protestations that the defendant was in in the courtroom in jail clothes and a jail identification bracelet.
Handcuffing a criminal defense lawyer in the courtroom must be a last recourse
I am cognizant about judges' tough jobs, while also knowing that judges need to know about the above realities of their jobs before accepting the job as a judge. Some judges take the job with a paycut, truly wanting to serve. Others take the job...
On battling like a flowing river, with unblocking, high vibration, zero limits and non-attachment
Nobody ever said that trial lawyering would be an easy profession. As I have said time and time again, this work is filled with proverbial projectile vomiting, projectile diarrhea, underhandedness by too many prosecutors and police, unfairness by too many judges, and shoveling sh*t.
Going to trial is the only way to know whether you will win, and the lawyer must fight like hell at trial and throughout the case
What is the most exhilarating part of being a criminal defense lawyer? Trials. Trials must be well-prepared and well fought; that is a given. Those meant for trial work will feel invigorated rather than exhausted by the battle.
Stop non-lawyer Virginia magistrates from approving search warrant applications and insert teeth into judicial search warrant application reviews
Virginia has a sad state of affairs that allows magistrates -- who are not required to be law school graduates unless they are a chief magistrate -- to review and approve search warrant applications. Virginia non-chief magistrates only need to have bachelors degrees.
On the invigoration of serving criminal defense clients, and simply serving
Keys to happiness and satisfaction with work and life are service, generosity and gratitude, which all focus outward rather than towards one's ego and selfishness. It also helps to love what you do and do what you love. Ego and selfishness are dualistic and about...
Criminalizing driving over a specific THC/marijuana blood level ignores the absence of a cause-effect correlation
It was bad enough that 2000 federal highway legislation shoved mandatory criminalization of driving with a 0.08 blood alcohol level down the states’ throats under the penalty of otherwise losing federal highway funding. Now we have a slippery slope of governments trying to criminalize threshold...
Dangled Constitutional Rights: Virginia’s Supreme Court affirms drug conviction despite a police stop without a dangling object violation
Virginia's Supreme Court has affirmed a drug conviction resulting from a traffic stop by a police officer misunderstanding the state's law against dangling objects that obstruct the driver's view
Pounce on warrantless police searches of bags in motel rooms and other residences
Appellate opinions on search and seizure repeatedly uphold warrantless police searches of nearly innumerable varieties. Fortunately, today Virginia's Court of Appeals underlined the continued sanctity of the Fourth Amendment prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures, by requiring the exclusion of illegal drugs found in Lashant...