A defendant’s intent to maim, disfigure, disable, or kill could be inferred solely from the act of pistol-whipping his victim before stealing his money. Background On March 4, 2014, Otis White Jr. went to visit Appellee Marquez Perkins’s mother, who ...

Tagged with: Criminal Evidence Published Order Supreme Court of Virginia

The discovery that a former Richmond police officer may have lied to obtain search warrants for drug suspects has helped undo convictions for 11 criminal defendants. But one man who pleaded no contest in 2010 to marijuana possession with intent ...

Tagged with: Judge Bradley B. Cavedo Supreme Court of Virginia

The Supreme Court of Virginia has ruled that a man convicted of both common law involuntary manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter must have one of the charges vacated. The dual convictions violate the double jeopardy clause of the Constitution. In making ...

Tagged with: Justice Stephen R. McCullough Supreme Court of Virginia

Telling a jury that doctors are responsible for all the consequences of their negligence, foreseen or not, is a misstatement of Virginia law, the Supreme Court of Virginia has found. Even though it comes in an unpublished order, the high ...

Tagged with: Justice D. Arthur Kelsey Supreme Court of Virginia

A property sales agreement, which set forth a mathematical formula for apportioning increases to local development-density rights between the property owners, was rendered impossible to calculate when the county removed the density limit entirely. Background In 2000, Appellant WG Land ...

Tagged with: Contract Justice Elizabeth A. McClanahan Land Use & Zoning Municipal Real Estate Real Property Supreme Court of Virginia

The court of appeals correctly held that convictions for both common-law and statutory involuntary manslaughter under Code § 18.2-154 amounted to unconstitutional double convictions for the same offense. Background A jury convicted Appellee Carroll Gregg of both common law involuntary ...

Tagged with: Constitutional Criminal Justice Stephen R. McCullough Supreme Court of Virginia

After unsuccessfully requesting a foreseeability instruction to the jury, the plaintiff – attempting to avoid numerous objections during the defense’s closing argument – obtained permission to enter a continuing objection, but failed to object with sufficient specificity as to any ...

Tagged with: Civil Procedure Medical Malpractice Negligence Per Curiam Opinion Personal Injury Supreme Court of Virginia Tort

Notwithstanding a “Final Order” denying nonsuit and ordering removal of the case from the court’s docket, a defendant failed to provide hearing transcripts or any other basis to conclude that the circuit court previously made a final ruling on the ...

Tagged with: Civil Procedure Landlord/Tenant Per Curiam Opinion Supreme Court of Virginia

A woman who accidentally fired into her first-floor hotel room was culpable under Virginia’s unlawful discharge statute. Law enforcement had just persuaded her not to commit suicide, but her gun went off as she was putting it down. Background After ...

Tagged with: Criminal Justice Charles S. Russell Supreme Court of Virginia

The Supreme Court of Virginia has once again ruled that a product safety expert failed to prove a claimant’s case, slamming the door on what had been a $4.2 million trial victory for the family of a man killed in ...

Tagged with: Justice Stephen R. McCullough Supreme Court of Virginia