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Last night, my son and I attended Tape Face's only appearance in the Washington, D.C., area for his current tour. I had been looking forward to this performance very much, and even more to spending a weeknight on the town with my son. Tape Face,...

During some DWI bench trials, it appears that judges are using a piece of paper to check off information about the defendant's purported performance on the junk science field sobriety tests. I hope that no judges are using a pre-printed checklist -- and if so,...

Repeatedly, I get clients who have -- or want in the future to obtain -- security clearances or public trusts (collectively "Security Clearances"). That is to be expected with so many people in the area working for the federal government and for federal government contractors,...

Praised be the judges who speak out against the drug war. Senior federal trial Judge Mark W. Bennett (N.D. Ia.) publicly admits feeling "greatly conflicted about my role in the 'war on drugs.'" (See also here.) Fourth Circuit senior Judge Andre Davis Jon Katz,...

Ermias Samson stands convicted of felonious possession with intent to sell marijuana under Virginia Code§ 18.2-248.1(a)(2), after his trial lawyer unsuccessfully sought to introduce into evidence the certificate of analysis from Virginia's Department of Forensic Science showing that it was not Samson's fingerprints on...

In 1991, I was still yearning to re-direct my career from the 25-lawyer corporate law firm that I had joined two years later, to something more meaningful. Ever since finishing law school, I went out of my way to meet birds of a professional and...

The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution limits police authority to stop, seize, and search people and their property. Sadly, the United States Supreme Court over the decades has limited the strength of the Fourth Amendment in numerous ways, including the horrendous Terry v....

Using police drug sniffing dogs is fraught with unreliability. as further addressed here, here, and here. Despite this unreliability, Virginia law poses substantial hurdles to a criminal defendant's obtaining by a records subpoena data about the training and performance of the case's drug dog. Fortunately...

How do we reverse the Nation's oppressive police state of affairs? As I have blogged for over a decade, we start by shrinking the overgrown criminal justice system, starting with steps as simple as legalizing marijuana, prostitution, and gambling; heavily decriminalizing all other drugs; eliminating...

Criminal defendants have many questions about expunging their court and police criminal case records, including the meaning of expungement, the best timing and approach to filing for expungement, and eligibility for expungement. Today's blog entry is limited to availability of expungement. Virginia's " key statutory...