Invoking one's Fifth and Sixth Amendment right to not talk with police without a lawyer so often spells the difference between liberty and conviction and incarceration. As a Virginia criminal defense attorney, I know that appellate courts only protect this right when invoked clearly and...
Recently, an unrepresented misdemeanor defendant appeared before a rather new Maryland judge for the non-jailable but nevertheless criminal misdemeanor charge of possessing an open alcoholic beverage container. Md. Code Alc. Bev. art. §6–322. The defendant asked the judge for a postponement, apparently to seek a...
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...
