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Virginia Court Rules Positive Alert by Narcotics Dog Was Not Sufficient Probable Cause to Search Passenger
October 04, 2009

The Virginia Supreme Court has held that a positive alert on a vehicle, detained after as traffic stop, by a trained narcotics detection dog, certified to detect the odors of marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine, combined with the subsequent fruitless searches of the vehicle, the driver, and two passengers, did not provide sufficient particularized probable cause to allow a search of the only remaining passenger in the vehicle.

Attachments:
VaSupCt-Whitehead2.pdf

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Defendant's Conviction for Obstruction of Justice Reversed
July 28, 2009

In the case of Marcus Antwan Atkins v. Commonwealth of Virginia, the Virginia Court of Appeals recently reversed a defendant's conviction for obstruction of justice as the court found that "mere flight" from a police officer does not constitute obstruction of justice.

Attachments:
VACt.ofAppeals-Atkins.pdf

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Virginia Supreme Court Decides Two Cases Involving Improper Police Interrogation
July 01, 2009

A Virginia court has held in two separate cases that statements made during a custodial interrogation should have been suppressed in the defendant's criminal trial because the defendant made a clear, unambiguous and unequivocal invocation of the right to counsel prior to making such statements and the police failed to honor the invocation of that right.

Attachments:
VaSupCt-Zektaw.pdf
VASupCt-Ferguson.pdf

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