Criminal Defense

Object to inadmissible jury sentencing evidence, or have the Virginia criminal defendant suffer the consequences. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that in the heat of battle the defendant's lawyer needs nevertheless not to overlook both objecting timely when an objection needs to be...

Passing checks on insufficient funds risks a theft conviction. Va. Code § 18.2-181. As a Virginia criminal lawyer and as a former commercial bank examiner/auditor during the year before law school, I know that passing bad checks is all too common. Fairfax criminal lawyer on the...

Danger abounds when insufficiently armed for court, says Fairfax criminal lawyer. Danger lurks around every corner in a criminal courthouse. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know it is essential to go to court fully prepared for battle. Criminal defense is not an exercise for...

Risks must be taken in criminal defense, says Virginia criminal lawyer. Risks can abound in criminal defense. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer having defended over three thousand criminal defendants since 1991, I fully know that. For my clients who actually committed the crime for which...

Qualifying a proposed expert witness for a Virginia criminal trial both rests in the sound discretion of the trial judge, for starters. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I also know that qualifying an expert witness for a criminal trial requires the following: If scientific, technical,...

Witness unavailability for the prosecution will not automatically avoid a conviction for a criminal defendant, which I have said many times as a Fairfax criminal lawyer. Mitchell Larnell Bennett learned that lesson when the Virginia Court of Appeals last week affirmed his felony drug distribution...

Judges usually will not question jurors after post-verdict polling, says Fairfax criminal lawyer. Rarely do judges question jurors on their verdicts after they are polled -- within moments of the jury verdict being read in open court -- to assure that this verdict was indeed...

Theft prosecutions need to be defended tooth and nail, says Fairfax criminal lawyer Theft prosecutions cannot be obtained in Virginia without proof beyond a reasonable doubt of the date of the crime and that the item(s) allegedly stolen had at least some value. Wright v....

Magic in the courtroom sprouts out of reality, says Fairfax criminal lawyer. Magic is within each of us to discover, invite, cultivate and unleash, which I know as a Fairfax criminal lawyer. This approach of finding and incorporating our magic was implored by Deryl Dantzler...

Judicial influences - Virginia criminal lawyer on the importance of knowing your judge. Judicial decisionmaking is influenced by factors beyond only the courtroom and judicial chambers. As a Virginia criminal lawyer, I know that judges come to their jobs with several decades of prior life...