Virginia Lawyers Weekly VA Lawyers Weekly

Where the district court on its own raised the issue of whether the inmate seeking compassionate release had satisfied the First Step Act’s administrative exhaustion requirement, and then dismissed the motion for failure to exhaust administrative remedies, that was error. ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal

Where defendants challenged their sentence for conspiracy to distribute and possess ice-level purity methamphetamine, it was not clearly erroneous for the district court to rely on testing results and circumstantial and direct evidence to conclude the conspiracy was centered on ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge A. Marvin Quattlebaum Jr.

Where the defendant had served the majority of her original sentence for conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, and her medical conditions combined with a high-risk pregnancy warranted a reduction in her prison term, her motion for compassionate release was granted. Background ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Rossie D. Alston Jr. U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Where a panel of the circuit court previously held that the district court applied the wrong standard in vacating the defendant’s death sentence for the murder of a police officer, but the case was then heard by an en banc ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal

Where the record showed a public defender failed to communicate to the defendant a plea offer of 20 years’ incarceration, there was no prejudice because there was also support for findings that the defendant was unwilling to accept a substantial ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge G. Steven Agee

Where the defendant was previously charged in state court with capital murder of a police officer after a traffic stop, a later federal prosecution for possession of a firearm by a felon was not barred by Double Jeopardy. An offense ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Paul V. Niemeyer

Even though incarcerated persons interviewed about safety following a stabbing were questioned in a separate location, isolated from the general prison population, restrained and not advised that they were free to leave, because of the totality of the circumstances, including ...

Tagged with: Evidence Judge James P. Jones U.S. District Court - Western District

Widespread news reports about appellant driving into a crowd of protestors were, standing alone, an insufficient reason to grant his motion to change venue. Further, the trial court properly allowed the prosecution to introduce a meme appellant sent to a ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Robert J. Humphreys Virginia Court of Appeals

Where the defendant, who appeared to be sleeping or unconscious in a running car that was positioned erratically in a school parking lot, began driving away when the police arrived, there was reasonable suspicion search his vehicle. Background A federal ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge G. Steven Agee

Where the guidelines range for someone convicted today for the cocaine-related crimes involved here would be 262-327 months, and the defendant had already served 289 months of his 360-month sentence, his sentence was reduced to time served under the First ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Michael F. Urbanski U.S. District Court - Western District