Sixth Amendment

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...

On June 23, 2017, the Supreme Court expanded upon Padilla, by confirming that it is ineffective assistance of counsel under the Sixth Amendment for a criminal lawyer to misadvise his or her client that a particular conviction or sentence will not carry adverse immigration consequences. Jae...

Recently, an unrepresented jail inmate appeared in a General District Court well outside Northern Virginia -- where I, therefore, only infrequently appear -- apparently for an arraignment. The prosecutor early on mentioned a motion he had filed that day or recently, seeking a court order...

None of us are safe from being prosecuted, making effective assistance of criminal counsel essential. Too many politicians, police and prosecutors have a penchant for painting the criminal law in terms of black and white: "You do the crime, you do the time;"

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...