Virginia Lawyers Weekly VA Lawyers Weekly

Where the sentencing court never determined whether the victim’s injuries lasted for a “meaningful period” or if they were of a type for which more-than-precautionary medical attention ordinarily would be sought, it erred in imposing a sentencing enhancement for bodily ...

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

Although a jury did not include any person with darker skin, because the codefendant struck two jurors with darker skin, and the prosecutor provided a non-pretextual reason for striking a third such juror, the Batson challenge failed. Background Terrence Deandre ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Henry F. Floyd

Where the police stopped a vehicle in which appellee was a passenger, they had sufficient reason to suspect that he was armed and dangerous. The circuit court erred by suppressing evidence of a weapon found after appellee was removed from ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Jerome B. Friedman Virginia Court of Appeals

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