Aug 4, 2017
Not long before Don Holman’s son Garrett died from an overdose in February, he learned his 20-year-old had his drugs delivered directly to their Virginia home in the mail, in packages from foreign countries, reports the Wall Street...
Aug 2, 2017
A Prosecutor Perspective Upon learning that a local law enforcement agency was preparing to deploy body worn cameras, as prosecutors we had to wonder what this new evidence would mean to our presentation of cases in court. Would this mean more or less work? More or...
Aug 1, 2017
Social media plays a large role in American life. Every minute users post 216,000 photos on Instagram, tweet 277,000 times, and share almost 2.5 billion pieces of content on Facebook.1 Social media’s importance also coincides with criminal prosecutions and...
Jul 21, 2017
As the Department of Justice continues its efforts to fulfill President Trump’s commitment to reducing violent crime in America, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced today that 12 cities are joining the Department’s newly organized National Public Safety...
Jul 19, 2017
District Attorney Andrew Womble says he is stepping up efforts with local law enforcement agencies to confront overdose deaths in the region by more severely prosecuting narcotics dealers. Last week, a Roanoke Island man was charged with second-degree murder after a...
Jul 18, 2017
Drug trafficking is an inherently violent business. If you want to collect a drug debt, you can’t, and don’t, file a lawsuit in court. You collect it by the barrel of a gun. For the approximately 52,000 Americans who died of a drug overdose in 2015, drug trafficking...
Jul 11, 2017
As police departments across the United States embrace the use of police body-worn cameras (“BWCs”), it is imperative that prosecutors be involved in the process as early as possible. The cameras will inevitably capture a great deal of evidentiary material that will...
Jul 7, 2017
While the battle between the FBI and Apple over whether the government could force the tech giant to hack into one of its phones in the service of an investigation made big headlines, the tug-of-war between technology companies and the government over encryption wages...
Jul 5, 2017
OWH July 5, 2017 Supporters of a program designed to protect youths brought into the U.S. illegally are criticizing Nebraska’s attorney general for asking the Trump administration to reverse its earlier decision to allow those youths to stay legally in the country....
Jun 30, 2017
Diversion programs that gained popularity in the 1970s are now experiencing a resurgence, as many states respond to tough-on-crime policies by reducing nonviolent felonies to misdemeanors. Run by courts, prosecutors and sometimes law enforcement, the programs channel...
