Category: Courts and law
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UVa Tragedy Reasonably Preventable? State Investigation Required
by James C. Sherlock Updated Nov. 15, 2020 at 8:36 AM (see end of article) We have two related pieces of information about the UVa tragedy that call into question the effectiveness of the University’s state-mandated threat-assessment process. We have the statements of senior University officials. And we have Code of Virginia § 23.1-805. Violence prevention…
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Fredericksburg is the Crime Capital of Virginia
by James C. Sherlock I wrote Friday that Fredericksburg has a major crime problem. After hours of plowing through state crime statistics for 2021, I can now declare Fredericksburg the crime capital of Virginia. Public safety is the number one job of local government, followed by running its schools. The statistics suggest the Fredericksburg law enforcement…
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Virginia Needs to Adopt the Uniform Act on Prevention of and Remedies for Human Trafficking
by James C. Sherlock Seldom can we mitigate bad problems with solutions that work and are handed us on a platter. But we can do that in Virginia in the case of human trafficking. The Department of Justice defines human trafficking as follows: Human trafficking, also known as trafficking in persons, is a crime that…
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Norfolk Man Accused of Triple Murder About To Be Freed
by Kerry Dougherty Good news for the soft-on-crime crowd: a suspected triple murderer is being freed in Norfolk because two witnesses didn’t show up for yesterday’s preliminary hearing. And because it appears that prosecutors aren’t exactly breaking a sweat trying to get this case moving. Antoine M. Legrande Jr.’s hearing was originally scheduled for September…
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Ah, Those Woke Prosecutors!
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Here is a quiz. Below is the description of a crime that was released by the public information office of a Virginia locality. The killer pled guilty to charges of first-degree murder, attempted robbery (2 counts) and use of a firearm (3 counts). The judge sentenced him to 63 years in prison…
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Progressive Initiatives in Virginia to be Blocked by Environmental Laws?
by James C. Sherlock Sometimes we are too clever for our own good. American environmentalists have been hugely successful and have done a great deal of good. We have them to thank for cleaner water and air. But traditional environmentalists, supported by legal interests, incorporated two features in America’s environmental laws that may prove as…
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Virginia Model Policies on Protecting Students Show Differences in Constitutional Focus and Interpretation
by James C. Sherlock There is lots of interest, and not a little headline hyperbole, concerning the change in Virginia’s model policies designed to assure all children appropriate treatment at school. Two different world views are apparent in the titles: the Northam administration’s Model Policies for the Treatment of Transgender Students in Virginia’s Public Schools (Northam…
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Who’s “Legislating from the Bench” Now?
by Jim McCarthy “It’s not the court’s place to legislate,” the judge stated in local media after dismissing a case seeking to have two books declared obscene upon her ruling that such ban violated Virginia and federal law. “Look, the General Assembly is a citizen legislature. We’re not lawmakers. Things like this happen and a…
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U.K. Suit Demonstrates Legal Jeopardy for Virginia Child Transgender Clinics
by James C. Sherlock You knew it was coming. The Times of London has reported the inevitable lawsuit. Tavistock gender clinic ‘to be sued by 1,000 families’ The Tavistock gender clinic (now closed) is facing mass legal action from youngsters who claim they were rushed into taking life-altering puberty blockers. I have no idea if the…
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Progressives in Virginia In Position to Overrule Parental Objections to Invasive Child Gender Dysphoria Treatment
by James C. Sherlock The Virginian-Pilot, in an editorial, bemoaned Governor Youngkin’s endorsement of a policy that would require schools to tell parents about their kids’ transexual identity expressions at school. It’s as though the potential consequences of such a policy have never crossed his mind. The sure consequences of opposing that policy were not…
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Pretrial Services Agencies: A Rejoinder
by Dick Hall-Sizemore My colleague, James Sherlock, recently posted an article in which he concluded that the Commonwealth’s pretrial agency program is a failure. I took issue with his basic conclusions, but did not have enough details handy to make my case. I now have more information. His conclusion was based on data shown in…
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Lee, Jackson, the Right of Rebellion, and Hanging Cromwell’s Corpse
by Jock Yellott As an August vacation from current events, let’s explore Virginia’s Right of Rebellion — and the question of Confederate treason. It’s in our state constitution Bill of Rights: “Whenever any government shall be found inadequate or contrary to [the benefit, protection, and security of the people] a majority of the community hath…
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Zombie Legislation
by Jim McCarthy Zombies, having become popular in filmdom and TV, are finding resonance in the nation’s legislative sausage making. Generally, the term zombie legislation applies to statutes negated or consigned to death, often by federal or state court decisions, that remain on the books due to legislative lethargy. Currently, the phenomenon has become more…
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Welcome to America, Land Where Killers Roam Free
by James A. Bacon Adrian de Jesus Rivera Guzman, 48, and his stepson Juan Carlos Anaya Hernandez, 24, immigrants who had fled gang violence in Central America, were in the wrong place at the wrong time. They were innocent bystanders doing landscaping work outside the Assembly Alexandria apartment complex when they were killed by gunfire.…
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Virginia Pre-Trial Release: the True Risks of Recidivism and Failure to Appear for Trial
by James C. Sherlock The goals, good ones, of Virginia’s Pre-trial Services Agencies (PSA) is to advise courts on pre-trial release risks; to supervise the population on pre-trial release to reduce recidivist crime and failures to appear (FTAs) and through both efforts to help assure public safety. By the government’s own evidence, those goals have…