The VLW Blog

Gov. Bob McDonnell issued a conditional pardon late Tuesday that led to freedom for a North Carolina man who has served four years in prison based on false accusations. The release came after hasty legal and investigative work by lawyers for Montgomery and by the governor’s staff. Johnathan Montgomery was released on conditional clemency based [...]

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Former Lancaster County Commonwealth’s Attorney C. Jeffers Schmidt Jr. is accused of destroying a public record last year as he ran unsuccessfully for re-election. Schmidt faces a misdemeanor charge in the case. Court records indicate he was arrested Nov. 6 and the Northern Neck News reports he was arraigned Wednesday in Lancaster County General District [...]

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A Hampton judge who ordered the release of a man he convicted for sexual assault four years ago now finds himself in a showdown with the state attorney general. Hearing evidence that the alleged victim lied in her accusations, and with the agreement of the local prosecutor, Circuit Judge Randolph West last week threw out [...]

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Chronic tardiness is not the way to win points with a judge. After a recent showdown in a federal court in South Carolina, the court and the offending litigant each came away with an appellate win. The plaintiff, who repeatedly showed up late to court and then cursed a judge after she left the courtroom, [...]

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A letter signed by 59 former judges, former prosecutors, lawyers and law professors asks the judge in the revived Justin Wolfe capital murder case to remove Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Ray Morrogh as special prosecutor. Defense lawyers for Wolfe claim Morrogh is too cozy with Prince William County Commonwealth’s Attorney Paul Ebert. They argue Ebert, [...]

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A defendant’s firearm conviction is reversed because testimony of a Quizno’s employee showed only that he had “something” under his shirt.  Defendant Donte Devan Mitchell walked into the restaurant and asked for a job application. He left when he was told the store was out of application forms. A short time later, he walked back [...]

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Federal and state government lawyers are trumpeting the formal resolution of a $1.6-billion case against pharmaceutical giant Abbott Laboratories Inc. for off-label marketing of its anti-seizure drug Depakote. A federal judge in Abingdon approved a criminal sentence for Abbott today. Various states and the federal government charged Abbott with illegally promoting the use of Depakote [...]

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Charlottesville Circuit Judge Edward Hogshire reduced only slightly a jury’s recommended sentence for the former University of Virginia lacrosse player convicted of second-degree murder in the 2010 beating death of his ex-girlfriend, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Hogshire imposed a 23-year sentence for the murder; the jury had chosen 25 years. A one year sentence [...]

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Convicted murderer George Huguely V will not get an evidentiary hearing on his claim that the prosecution withheld evidence of a planned civil suit in violation of Brady v. Maryland, a Charlottesville Circuit Court said Aug. 15. Huguely alleged that before trial, prosecutors were aware that the family of the victim, fellow U.Va. student Yeardley [...]

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Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Ray Morrogh Monday moved to dismiss the murder charge against Michael Hash for the 1996 slaying of a Culpeper County woman. Hash’s capital murder conviction was overturned in February with a federal judge finding police and prosecutorial misconduct. Now, with a judge dismissing the murder charge, Hash is a “totally free [...]

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