Criminal Defense

I often hear people, including criminal defense colleagues, rallying around candidates for judges and chief prosecutors. Rarely do I hear talk in such promotions, and during confirmation hearings, about the extent to which the judge will be overly harsh with setting bonds and setting sentences. ...

Kudos to Virginia’s intermediate appellate court for reversing a second degree murder conviction, due to the trial court’s refusal to allow the defendant to present a self defense theory surrounding the alleged gang membership of the decedent and one of his star witnesses, to try to...

Bill of Rights (From public domain.) Early on, trial lawyers are taught to “know your judge” and your jury. As a consequence, decisions whether to proceed to trial or settle a criminal or civil case require considering the potential judges and jurors who will sit at...

Bill of Rights. (From the public domain.) Search warrants of people’s homes often are issued as a result of alleged criminal activity that takes place far from the suspect’s home. When is alleged offsite criminal activity sufficient to permit a warrant to search one’s home? In such...

Following up on my earlier post today on Padilla, I sent the following to a few local criminal defense listservs: Yesterday’s Padilla decision is destined to change the landscape for the better of how criminal defense lawyers and judges address immigration issues. Here are a...

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,...

Read enough search warrant applications, and "CI" (confidential informant) will rear its head again and again. Praised be Virginia’s Court of Appeals (albeit by only 2-1) for reversing a conviction that resulted from a so-called reliable confidential informant’s tip that the defendant was about to...

Today, the Fourth Circuit revisited Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38 (2007) and Rita v. United States, 551 U.S. 338 (2007), in ordering a resentencing where a sentencing judge "stated that while it did not agree with the Guidelines range, it was ‘obligated’ to give...

How many Supreme Court justices have been interrogated by police? Probably none. How many have asserted their Miranda rights with the police, only to have the police repeatedly come back to them seeking a reversal of the waiver? Probably fewer. How many of them agree...

Many make much fanfare about the United States criminal justice system’s right for criminal defendants to remain silent, to have a trial, to be presumed innocent unless and until found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and the right to counsel. However, the courts where I...