Fairfax criminal lawyer
Search challenges require standing – Fairfax criminal lawyer
Fairfax criminal lawyer on the Constitutional standing hurdles for challenging police searches, Search challenges in court require meeting the threshold hurdle of standing, meaning showing that the criminal defendant had a reasonable expectation of privacy under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. As...
Police patience & de-escalation – Witnessed by Fairfax criminal lawyer
Fairfax criminal lawyer urges good police and judicial conduct to be contagions for a better criminal justice system. Police patience and de-escalation are sorely needed in our overpoliced society where I have witnessed a police officer yelling his head off at a driver who had...
Happy 420 – Fairfax criminal lawyer on marijuana legalization as freedom of choice
Fairfax criminal lawyer applauds marijuana's inroads with legalization, decriminalization, and medicinal use. Happy 420. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I learned long ago that 420, 4/20 (April 20), and 4:20 (as in toking near the end of the school or work day at 4:20 p.m.)...
Marijuana tax act conviction of LSD guru Timothy Leary reversed by SCOTUS
Fairfax criminal lawyer on a marijuana case victory for Timothy Leary. Marijuana tax act (Act) prosecutions were popular right through the 1960's, until the United States Supreme Court in 1969 reversed LSD guru Timothy Leary's conviction for not complying with the Act, in that complying...
Unlawful firearm discharge in Virginia – Fairfax criminal lawyer
Fairfax criminal lawyer on criminal liability for discharging a firearm indoors in Virginia. Unlawful firearm discharge indoors is a Class 4 or 6 felony in Virginia (depending on whether malice is involved), respectively carrying up to ten and five years in prison. As a Fairfax...
Abandoned handguns and nearby fleeing suspects- Fairfax criminal lawyer
Fairfax criminal lawyer on the risks of fleeing suspects being convicted for nearby abandoned handguns
Abandoned handguns can convict nearby fleeing suspects. I know this as a Fairfax criminal lawyer, and Calvin Cardale Townes learned the same, as affirmed this week by the Virginia Court of...
Virginia marijuana law update – Expanding CBD & THC-A oils to all ailments
Virginia marijuana law is woefully behind neighboring District of Columbia and Maryland, which both do not criminalize possession of personal amounts of marijuana (but D.C. still criminalizes smoking marijuana in public). As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that Virginia police overemphasize ferreting out marijuana...
Motivations for your potential criminal defense lawyer to do such work
What motivates your potential criminal defense lawyer to do the work s/he does? Being a former prosecutor does not answer whether the lawyer has the drive to do criminal defense work, nor does such experience preclude the lawyer from being great in criminal defense. Coming...
Virginia Criminal Defense Procedures
Virginia criminal defense is not only about preparing for trials and challenging the existence of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that mastery of criminal procedure and well-executed procedure is part of the toolkit for winning defense.
Public Intoxication Law and Defense
Public intoxication arrests run rampant in Virginia. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I remember first witnessing a public intoxication (also known as drunk in public / DIP ) investigation and arrest when two courthouse sheriff's deputies called out for the suspect to "blow, blow, blow"...