Jury selection
Judicial interference- Fairfax criminal lawyer on its role in voir dire
Judicial interference is all too common in too many trials. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I see the risk or actuality of a prosecutor in robes, when judges start asking too many quesitons of witnesses before the jury, coach prosecutors on how to overcome their...
Anxious jurors- Fairfax criminal lawyer weighs in
Anxious jurors are a reality in criminal defense. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that such anxiety can be situational to the jury trial and deliberations themselves, and generalized to a juror's overall life experience. Your Virginia criminal lawyer can make inquiries during voir dire...
Jury panel equivocation- Fairfax criminal lawyer comments
Jury panel member equivocation can be common during the voir dire process of selecting and deselecting potential jurors /Â venire panel members. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that the voir dire process is so critical that some litigants spend hefty sums to hire consultants...
Objecting to Remote Trials & Masks
Objecting is part of the toolkit of a trial lawyer. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that non-trials are resuming this week in most Virginia counties, while jury trials are on hold, during Covid-19. For courts not resuming most trials, they are expected to...
Jury selection- Fairfax criminal lawyer on early disclosure about sentencing
As harsh as the Virginia criminal justice system generally is when compared to its two northern neighboring jurisdictions, a blessing in Virginia is that lawyers in criminal and civil cases get to question and talk with potential jurors at length in the jury selection/ voir...
Judges must not allow jury members who are not going to follow their oath
Jurors in criminal and civil trials are obligated to follow their oath, which includes being fair and impartial, and not favoring one witness over another on the basis of the witness's profession nor personal connection to the juror.
Fourth Circuit reverses conviction of pro se defendant, due to no sufficient waiver of counsel
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...