Criminal Defense

Today, the United States Court of Appeals confirmed that said court has “never held that counsel can be relinquished by means short of waiver.” Consequently, the trial court’s finding of forfeiture of counsel by felony defendant Phillip Ductan’s uncooperative pretrial behavior during his criminal trial was...

Recently, I asked a police officer a few very direct questions about his actions with my client. Had I asked the questions more gently, I may have gotten no less a beneficial result, but I asked them as I did. The officer got irritated. He...

George Lee Hawkins was stopped for a moving violation. Once stopped, the police saw a bulge in his shirt, and asked him if he could raise his “‘shirt up a little bit so [the police officer could] see how it sits.’” Hawkins then “extended his arms completely out to his sides...

When police claim the accused possessed contraband, a key path of attack is to seek to suppress evidence of the seizure and search that turned up the alleged contraband. Praised be Virginia’s intermediate appellate court for recently overturning a contraband-bearing car inventory search, because: “[W]e...

The United States Supreme Court substantially limits free expression rights when it comes to child pornography, out of consideration of the harm that child pornography can and does cause. Thankfully, the Supreme Court is cautious against creating new categories of expression that receive reduced First...

Compassion and empathy are critical to winning in trial battle and to living a good life. However, a criminal defense lawyer has no business walking into the courtroom if s/he will let compassion, empathy, or anything else other than sound strategy make the lawyer hesitate...

Recently as we were headed to our respective courtrooms, a fellow criminal defense lawyer sarcastically remarked that we had entered the hallowed halls of justice. I replied: “More like guerrilla warfare with too many judges not being neutral referees”, that is, too many judges at...

On April 21, 2015, the United States Supreme Court resolved a federal circuit court split by ruling 6-3 that traffic stops must be concluded in a reasonable timeframe (already settled Supreme Court caselaw), and may not be prolonged without an independent lawful basis to do...

The videotaped and other reported incidents of wrongful killings and other misconduct by police keep pouring in. With this month’s police killings of Walter Scott (shot in the back) and Eric Harris (shot by a part-time cop claiming he meant only to tase Harris), we...

With no prior convictions, on a federal court guilty plea to one count of child pornography, Steven Helton received a five year prison term and lifetime probation. U.S. v. Helton, ___ F.3d ___ (April 2, 2015). Helton could have fared much worse at trial, based...