The VLW Blog

York County Circuit Judge N. Prentis Smiley lacked any authority to commute the death sentence of capital murder defendant Daryl Renard Atkins to life in prison, an attorney told the Supreme Court of Virginia today.Chief Justice Leroy Rountree Hassell Sr. and Justice Barbara Milano Keenan seemed to have trouble with that concept. Circuit judges have [...]

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George Mason University law students have won the U.S. Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship in the National Rounds of the 2009 Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, according to the school’s announcement. The moot team shut out the competition 7-0. The team will advance to the International Rounds (finals) to be held in Washington, D.C., [...]

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As reported at SCOTUSblog, the U.S. Supreme Court today upheld the conviction of a West Virginia man under a federal law that bans firearm possession for people convicted of domestic violence. The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled that the law should not apply because the defendant’s battery conviction was based on a state [...]

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The proposal to transfer control of the judicial performance evaluation program from the Supreme Court of Virginia died last night in the Senate Courts of Justice Committee on a 9-6 vote. The House had approved the measure on a 49-48 vote. Sen. Ken T. Cuccinelli II, R-Fairfax, and most of the Republican on the committee [...]

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The vote was 2-to-1 against an overhaul of U.Va.’s single sanction honor system. The proposal had needed at least 60 percent of the student body voting in its favor to pass, but 70 percent of students who voted on the referendum voted against it, The Daily Progress reports. Currently, students found to be in violation [...]

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A Lynchburg circuit judge has ordered a trial to determine who gets a $500,000 bond posted by opponents of a college art sale. The issue is whether Randolph College was damaged by an injunction that delayed the sale, reportsThe News & Advance. Richmond-based attorney Anthony F. Troy, who represents the defendants who filed the injunction, [...]

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The Supreme Court of Virginia is hearing the appeal of a group of disabled Virginians who claim they don’t have equal access to the state lottery. The complaint alleges that many lottery outlets are in violation of both national and state disabilities acts by not making their facilities wheelchair-accessible, and therefore denying handicapped individuals equal [...]

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Two lawsuits against the Roanoke County School Board alleging student mistreatment have been dismissed based on sovereign immunity. Roanoke attorney Harvey Lutins, who filed both suits in Roanoke County Circuit Court, said on Friday that he intends to explore whether the cases can be pursued through other legal avenues, reports The Roanoke Times. One suit [...]

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The Vicki Iseman suit was not the only defamation case in the news in recent days. On Friday, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a jury award to a Korean businessman who said he was defamed by newspaper columns in a Korean-language newspaper. According to the unpublished appellate opinion in Choi v. Lee, [...]

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The House and Senate Courts of Justice Committees voted yesterday to send an ultimatum to Chief Justice Leroy Rountree Hassell Sr.: withdraw the order limiting dissemination of judicial performance evaluation reports or appear before the committees to explain why legislators can’t make free use of the reports. The action came at the beginning of a [...]

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