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United States District Court for the District of Maryland
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Bar Association of Montgomery County, Maryland

The jury selection process in Maryland criminal trials is influenced by many competing factors. Each opposing side seeks a jury panel that, in their opinion, will be optimally receptive to their arguments and evidence. Prosecutors have many tools and know numerous techniques to help them fashion the jury they want. If you’re someone facing trial, you need a skilled Maryland criminal defense lawyer on your side who can level the playing field and help you get the fair jury you need.

In some cases, two factors that may conflict are the right to utilize peremptory challenges (which allow the removal of potential jurors even in the absence of a reason for that removal) and the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection. A theft case recently before the Appellate Court of Maryland highlights what the law requires in these circumstances.

Courts follow the seminal case in this area, a 1986 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Batson v. Kentucky. The high court said that prosecutors could not use their peremptory challenges to exclude potential jurors based on discriminatory considerations like race. (In that case, a Kentucky prosecutor used peremptory challenges to remove African-American potential jurors, leaving an all-white jury to decide the fate of an African-American defendant on trial for burglary.)

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The effects of an unsuccessful asylum application can be catastrophic. It can mean being uprooted from your home and your family, being sent to a country you’ve never known as home, and possibly a place where you may find yourself to be a target for hate and violence. For these reasons and more, you must put forward the strongest asylum application possible. Statistics show that asylum applicants with attorney representation are six more likely to succeed than those without, so don’t delay retaining an experienced Maryland asylum lawyer to assist you.

Membership in any collection of people that U.S. immigration law recognizes as a “particular social group” can be essential to a successful asylum application. You can qualify for asylum if you are a member of one or more of these groups and you present proof that, if you are returned to your home country, you either (a) have a reasonable fear of harm or (b) a history of past harm as a result of your membership in the group.

To succeed on this basis, you need the right social group undergirding your application. Simply asserting, for example, “Honduran females” as your group will almost certainly be deemed too broad. An overly broad group will doom your application and leave you subject to deportation, as was the case with one California man recently.

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Maryland law gives law enforcement officers extensive leeway in the interrogation tactics they use. Officers may permissibly manipulate, deceive, and even outright lie to a suspect; those are all valid investigative tactics. This reality is one of the reasons why refusing to speak with officers without a qualified Maryland criminal defense lawyer present is almost always a good idea. Your seasoned attorney may recognize when an officer is employing the “tools of the trade” to get you to say something incriminating, and protect you from making statements that could later harm you at trial.

However, the statements an officer can make in an interrogation setting are very different from statements the state can introduce into evidence in a criminal trial. And, as a recent murder case shows, while the police can tell a suspect “your story defies belief” in the interrogation room, the state generally can’t admit that opinion commentary into evidence in the suspect’s trial.

The murder case arose from an alcohol-fueled dispute between two friends. Police arrived at a Montgomery County apartment to find a man, Y.R., dead. They took a woman, S.N., into custody and interrogated her. That interrogation was recorded on video.

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The EB-5 immigrant visa program serves a very important purpose, granting legal status to investors and entrepreneurs whose contributions are vital to maintaining a healthy U.S. economy. The program imposes numerous and sometimes complicated requirements that demand the production of considerable evidence to secure a green card. Failure to meet all the various requirements may result in unnecessary delay or denial. A knowledgeable Maryland investor visa lawyer can help you ensure that your business plan is strong and that you have everything you need to secure your visa.

The program provides green cards to investors who infuse a set minimum amount into a job-creating commercial venture in the U.S. Today, that figure generally is $1 million. That number is only $500,000, however, if the commercial venture is placed in a targeted employment area (TEA.) The federal government defines “high unemployment” TEAs as areas where the unemployment rate is 1-1/2 times the national average or higher. Additionally, the program demands that the venture create at least 10 jobs. Those jobs don’t have to exist at the time of the investment but they must be created within 2 years.

In 2022, Congress passed the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 (RIA), which amended the statutory sections that govern the EB-5 program. One of those changes added new statutory language requiring that EB-5 investments “be expected to remain invested for at least two years.” A new guidance document from the USCIS addressed an important question created by this modified statutory language: what’s the start date for this 2-year requirement?

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When people hear the phrase “deferred action” concerning immigration law, they may initially focus on the DREAMers. Other processes beyond just Deferred Action for Child Arrivals, or DACA, potentially can help immigrants protect themselves from deportation, however. To find out if you can shield yourself from deportation through a deferred action process (or other means,) consult an experienced Maryland immigration lawyer.

One form of deferred action (outside of DACA) was in the news earlier this year, and it safeguards immigrant workers caught in an all-too-common situation. You may have even seen fictionalized versions of this circumstance play out on television. The undocumented worker is the victim of (or otherwise witnesses) his/her employer engaging in illegal practices. The employer then blackmails the worker into silence by threatening to contact “Immigración” (a/k/a federal immigration authorities) and get the worker deported.

The Department of Homeland Security has long had a process to allow these workers to pursue deferred action and protect themselves from removal. Earlier this year, DHS announced that it had “streamlined” the process, allowing workers to receive “expedited” processing of their deferral requests.

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“A violation of your Fourth Amendment rights.” People often associate this phrase with an impermissible search without a warrant, but that’s not the only scenario. An arrest itself can be a constitutional violation if the foundation underlying the arrest warrant isn’t adequate to establish probable cause. Whether you’re under suspicion or under arrest, don’t delay in retaining an experienced Maryland criminal defense lawyer to provide you with the skillful representation you need.

A homicide case from Prince George’s County is a real-life example of how an arrest warrant can be fatally flawed. The case flowed from an unsolved 2005 murder in which 2-3 armed intruders entered an apartment in Landover, tied up one man, and fatally shot a second man inside the unit.

In late December 2017, a detective filed an application for a statement of charges in connection with that murder.

In a Maryland criminal trial, a jury should only convict the accused if the prosecution has presented evidence proving the accused’s commission of that specific crime beyond a reasonable doubt. Often, the people on trial are folks without spotless records; they may have had multiple prior encounters with the criminal judicial system. Those facts alone don’t make them guilty, though those facts might tempt a jury to find that defendant guilty simply because the jurors decide they dislike the accused. If you’re someone with a criminal past who is on trial again, it is crucial to ensure that you get inadmissible evidence of your past excluded from your case. This is just one of many areas where it pays to have representation from an experienced Maryland criminal defense lawyer.

These limitations on what the prosecution can do are necessary to avoid confusing jurors, prejudicing them against the accused, and predisposing them to believe the accused is guilty. In other words, the evidence might lead the jury to convict just because they think the accused is a bad person, not because the state offered sufficient proof of the crime charged.

As an example, there’s the Maryland Supreme Court’s recent ruling in the case of F.B., a Baltimore man on trial for felony child abuse.

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On July 31, a federal court in California issued a ruling in an immigration class action lawsuit. That ruling has created nationwide impacts, with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services authoring an update to its USCIS Policy Manual. That update, which will align with the court’s July 31 ruling, deals with special immigrant juvenile (SIJ) status, the 180-day timeframe for adjudicating an SIJ petition, and the provisions within the Department of Homeland Security’s regulations regarding tolling of that 180-day deadline. This new development is potentially significant in many ways, one of which is to remind anyone with questions about SIJ status to seek out answers from a knowledgeable and fully up-to-date Maryland immigration lawyer.

SIJ status is available to certain immigrants who have been the subject of state juvenile court proceedings regarding abuse, neglect, or abandonment. The way to initiate a request for SIJ status is to file a Form 360, Petition for Amerasian, Widow(er), or Special Immigrant.

An immigrant can obtain SIJ status if he/she (1) “has been declared dependent on a juvenile court or legally committed to the custody of an individual or entity” and (2) cannot viably reunify with one or both parents “due to abuse, neglect, or abandonment.” Additionally, (3) an administrative or judicial proceeding must have deemed “that it would not be in the juvenile immigrant’s best interest to be returned to the juvenile immigrant’s or parent’s previous country of nationality or country of last habitual residence,” and (4) the DHS “consents to the grant of special immigrant juvenile status.”

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One of the most important fundamental rights each person in Maryland has is the right to legal representation in criminal matters. This right acknowledges just how important a robust defense is to a fair criminal process and how life-altering a criminal conviction can be. If you are facing a criminal charge (or under suspicion of a crime,) it is important to retain not just any attorney but rather the right Maryland criminal defense lawyer with the knowledge and experience necessary to provide you with the effective advocacy you need.

Because the right to counsel is so fundamental, a trial court order impinging it can be illegal and the basis for a successful appeal. Take, for example, the criminal trial arising from a Christmas night altercation at a Columbia convenience store.

The dispute turned into a stabbing that left one man injured, one man dead, and a Baltimore man on trial for second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder. The accused asserted that he acted in self-defense.

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Back in July, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling overturning a removal order in the case of a Salvadoran woman and her minor son. The ruling in favor of the asylum applicant represents just the latest in a series of appellate and Supreme Court rulings related to defective immigration notices, and points out how even very technical defects in the notices to appear the government issues may eventually help applicants avoid removal. Success in these matters often requires in-depth knowledge of the law and the procedural requirements, which is why you should definitely consult with an experienced Maryland deportation defense lawyer about your situation.

The applicant, A.A.L.-G., and her minor son entered to the United States from El Salvador without authorization. Immigration authorities detained them in Texas. At that time, the mother told a federal asylum officer that gang members in El Salvador had threated to rape her and kill her son as a result of her refusal to cooperate with the gang. The officer believed that the mother was credible and referred her case.

A few weeks later, in late May 2019, the government served a “notice to appear” before an immigration judge. In the space where the date and time of hearing should have appeared, the form said simply “TBD,” which would seem to mean “to be determined.”

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