Today, The Virginian-Pilot published a story by reporter Caitlyn Burchett titled "Man accused in 3 homicides admits to killings, says he 'snapped' during argument with girlfriend." Based on the information in the story, less than 24 hours after Cola Beale was taken into custody on charges of three counts of murder, he "spoke with The Virginian-Pilot and other media outlets" and "admitted to all three slayings." As a criminal defense attorney, the story disturbs me and raises serious questions of journalistic ethics and jail policy of allowing unfettered media access to recent arrestees who are ..read more

As we’ve discussed many times on our blog and podcast, jury sentencing sucks many butts. Thus we’re excited that effective July 1, future butts will be spared as jury sentencing goes the way of the dodo and Armie Hammer’s career. Ba Dum Tsshh. For real though, huge props to the General Assembly for taking us out of the dark ages where exercising the right to a jury trial meant worrying about a jury “recommendation” of life plus cancer if you lost. From here on out: But this post isn’t actually about jury sentencing. It’s about a massive change to sentencing guidelines that could have a mitigat ..read more

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUsVoUKG3dk If you watch the video, make sure to turn on closed captioning If you’re a follower of the W&K blog, then you know that we’ve been pounding the drum for a long time to get rid of jury sentencing. Well, it turns out that we’ve got fans in high places because today ,the Virginia Senate voted 22-18 to give criminal defendants the right to be sentenced by a judge after jury trials. Now it goes off to the House of Delegates with a very real chance of being the new law of the land in 2021. In the Virginian-Pilot article, Senator Joe Morrissey, the chie ..read more

Wazzzup fellow defense attorneys. Hut One, Hut Two, Hut Three, Hut! Ol Dirty W&K live and uncut. Listen, we need to sit down and have a little talk. This is awkward. You see...we’ve been getting your appeals. And that means we’ve been reading your transcripts. And it turns out that some of you don’t know diddly poo about how to preserve issues for appeal. Right now some of you might be saying: First off, that was a long time ago. We learned appellate preservation the hard way. It took years and many trials worth of botched appellate issues and getting raked over the coals by Court of Appe ..read more

In my ,last blog post, I slammed a local attorney for playing fast and loose with facts and advocating the prosecution of public defenders who spray painted a confederate monument. Since that post, I’ve had a couple of attorneys reach out to me in good faith who thought that I was too flippant in dismissing criticism of the spray painting as “pearl clutching.” I’m happy to engage with people who want to have an intellectually honest discussion so I felt compelled to follow up. It’s true that people cannot feel free to simply disregard laws because they feel that something is unfair or wrong ..read more

I’m a social media luddite. I’ve never had a personal FaceBook or Instagram account. I reluctantly dipped my toe in social media waters only 2.5 years ago in order to advertise my new business. I quickly learned that social media is rife with bad actors who distort facts and manipulate public opinion to further their own agenda. Disturbingly, I also learned that this is the way that a considerable portion of the population consumes the majority of their news. Last night, I was sent a video posted by local attorney and aspiring muckraking journalist Tim Anderson regarding protests in Portsmout ..read more

Check out our recent interview on Mike & Woo Woo in the morning on 94.9 The Point. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=688536371692266 We discuss: What to do if you're protesting and stopped by police. Some of the more common crimes charged as a result of the protests. Why the justice system is imbalanced and what can be done to fix it. Specifically, we propose pay parity between prosecutors and public defenders. The implications of courts endorsing police searches in "high crime neighborhoods ..read more

The most commonly asked question in the aftermath of the George Floyd murder appears to be: What can I do to help? As a private criminal defense attorney and former public defender, my answer is: DEMAND EQUAL PAY FOR PUBLIC DEFENDERS. The majority of public defender clients are black and minority defendants desperate for proper legal representation. One of the biggest problems with the public defender system is that it’s underfunded and PDs are severely underpaid. Prosecutor offices, on the other hand, always seem to be adequately funded and their attorneys properly compensated. My hometown o ..read more

Our country is on fire after yet another unarmed black man, George Floyd, was killed by a police officer who kneeled on his neck until he was dead. Protesters have come to streets all over America, rightly furious, over this latest sordid chapter in the sadly recurring history of police brutality on minority communities. We’re well aware that policing and the criminal justice system as a whole disproportionately touches the lives of black Americans. In our hometown of Virginia Beach, ,49% of those charged with disorderly conduct and ,57% charged with possession of marijuana are black despite ..read more

A lot of people are wondering about the legality of Gov. Northam’s executive order requiring face coverings in public places that took effect on May 29, 2020. This post is not intended to stir the political pot. We just want to give you the straight facts. What authority does he have to issue the order? Gov. Northam has invoked his authority under: (1) Va. Code Section 44-146.17; and (2) Article V of the Constitution of Virginia. Va. Code § 44-146.17 says he can take action on things “relating to the safety and welfare of the Commonwealth in time of disasters.” These powers are fairly broad ..read more