The VLW Blog

The right question by a defense attorney was the key in the reversal today of a drug possession conviction. The defendant was in the right rear passenger seat when police in Suffolk stopped a car for a traffic violation and brought a drug dog to the vehicle. The dog circled the car before finally alerting [...]

[Read more →]

The Supreme Court of Virginia affirmed the death penalty today for William Charles Morva but set aside the death penalty of a man convicted of murder and rape in Fairfax County 20 years after the crimes. The only real point of contention in the case of Morva was whether he should be allowed to present [...]

[Read more →]

The Supreme Court of Virginia has withdrawn its opinion declaring a common law duty for host parents to “supervise and care” for a sleepover guest. The opinion in Kellermann v. McDonough allowed a civil trial of  a couple who permitted their daughter and a visiting friend to ride with a 17-year-old boy.  The ride ended [...]

[Read more →]

The best that could be said for Virginia Beach J&DR Judge Ramona D. Taylor was that she “bumbled through” an assault case and “made a pretty serious error,” Justice Lawrence L. Koontz Jr. observed today. “Why shouldn’t censure be appropriate?” he asked her attorney, Kevin Martingayle. Martingayle responded that judicial canons don’t contemplate censure for [...]

[Read more →]

A Northern Virginia law firm is asking the Supreme Court of Virginia to order the clerk of the Fairfax County Juvenile & Domestic Relations Court to process a backlog of fee vouchers for court appointed lawyers.    Mike Arif and Matt Greene say their firm is owed more than $73,000 for legal work for the indigent, [...]

[Read more →]

Convicted DC Sniper John Allen Muhammad will be put to death on Nov. 10 under a ruling today by Prince William County Circuit Judge Mary Grace O’Brien. As reported by The Washington Post , the commonwealth had asked for a Nov. 9 date, a Monday.  The judge set the execution of sentence for the next [...]

[Read more →]

In this pink-slip nervous economy, employees may wonder anew how much notice they can expect before being escorted out the door. Not much, according to a new decision from Alexandria federal court. Hourly employee Mauricio Calquin sued his former employer, Doodycalls Fairfax, for violating overtime pay laws. Calquin also tacked on a state-law claim for [...]

[Read more →]

In a federal plea deal, a former SunTrust Bank executive admitted forging signatures to issue checks to himself. Douglas Calvin Powell Jr., a former assistant vice president at SunTrust, pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud in U.S. District Court in Roanoke, reports The Roanoke Times. His plea was part of an agreement structured [...]

[Read more →]

President Obama Monday nominated Virginia Supreme Court Justice Barbara Milano Keenan to a seat on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Keenan, who has served on Virginia’s high court since 1991, became the state’s first female judge when she was named to the Fairfax County General District Court bench in 1980. In a White [...]

[Read more →]

At least three justices of the Supreme Court of Virginia appeared skeptical today that two attorneys had demonstrated an intent to obstruct or interrupt justice when they directed their clients not to appear for trial of a misdemeanor appeal after prosecutors had agreed to a continuance. Former Norfolk Circuit Judge Charles D. Griffith Jr. found that [...]

[Read more →]