Virginia Lawyers Weekly VA Lawyers Weekly

Where petitioner, who was in the United States on a student visa, pleaded guilty to a charge of possessing paraphernalia without being advised that the plea might result in her deportation, she is entitled to habeas corpus relief. Overview Following ...

Tagged with: Fairfax Circuit Court Habeas Corpus Judge John M. Tran Virginia Circuit Courts

Where defendant was indicted for taking down the Robert E. Lee statue located in Lee Park in the city of Roanoke using his truck and chains, and damaging the statue in the process, his motion to dismiss the indictment is ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Onzlee Ware Roanoke City Circuit Court Virginia Circuit Courts

Where the government failed to turn over potentially exculpatory evidence of a recorded interview that was material to the defendant’s conviction for possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, that conviction was vacated. Where the interview ...

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

Where a convicted serial killer moved for a stay of execution under 28 U.S.C. § 2255, arguing his intellectual disability precluded his execution, and he had previously made this claim in a prior § 2255 petition, his successive § 2255 ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge David J. Novak U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Where officers speaking to a man in his parked car drew no weapons, used nonthreatening language, never touched the driver and made no attempt to physically block his departure, a reasonable person would have felt free to leave. The officers ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge David J. Novak U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Even though appellant had never been convicted of a sex crime and had been on probation for “larceny type and fraud type offenses” when he violated his probation, the court properly conditioned his further probation – after serving a one-year ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Mary Grace O'Brien Virginia Court of Appeals

Where the trial court refused to give appellant’s proposed jury instruction on the lesser-included offense of voluntary manslaughter, his second-degree murder conviction is reversed and the case is remanded for a new trial “if the Commonwealth be so inclined.” Overview ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge William G. Petty Virginia Court of Appeals

Appellant’s motion to suppress his sexually explicit internet chats with a police officer, who was posing as a 13-year-old girl, was correctly denied. The electronic communications were not obtained in violation of the wiretap act. Further, appellant was not in ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Mary Grace O'Brien Virginia Court of Appeals

A former University of Virginia lacrosse player convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend in 2012 was granted an evidentiary hearing on whether the jury was improperly given a dictionary during deliberations to resolve confusion over the meaning of “malice.” Although the ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Thomas T. Cullen U.S. District Court - Western District

Where appellant claimed his appointed defense counsel had not prepared him for trial, the trial court correctly treated appellant’s assertion as a motion to withdraw counsel and properly denied the motion after hearing counsel describe her pretrial preparations with appellant. ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Randolph A. Beales Virginia Court of Appeals