The VLW Blog

This paper has reported on some high-dollar med-mal cases involving Caesarean sections, but an unpublished 4th Circuit case out of Roanoke offers a new twist.
Nickeshia M. Lawrence sued Carilion Roanoke Community Hospital for medical malpractice in failing to perform a Caesarean section when she was giving birth to her son.
After a five-day trial, the jury [...]

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Fear of flu has abated, but it might have been a factor in a successful Batson strike earlier this year.
Frederick J. Smith went on trial in early January in Richmond federal district court on marijuana and firearm charges. The prosecution sought to exclude two black jurors, one because the juror was unemployed, and the other, [...]

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Here are a couple more cases for your Batson file.
Can a prosecutor strike a prospective juror she suspects would have trouble understanding complicated DNA evidence?
It’s a question the Court of Appeals had to back away from, even after the Supreme Court of Virginia had granted a delayed appeal to a convicted rapist.
Responding to a Batson [...]

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Litigators who like to catalogue race-neutral bases for striking prospective jurors can add another one that has worked in federal court in Richmond: being a veteran of a Richmond jury.
A 1986 case, Batson v. Kentucky, and its progeny protect parties against an exercise of peremptory strikes based on race or gender. In U.S. v. Williams, [...]

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