Brown Law is seeking an Associate Attorney to join its team. Brown Law is a boutique law firm located in downtown Baltimore City. The firm focuses primarily on federal and state criminal defense, criminal appeals, collateral review cases (e.g., post-conviction and coram nobis petitions), and [...]
In recent decades, there has existed a resounding finality to federal prison sentences. Once a sentence was imposed – no matter how unfair it may have been – it was virtually impossible to get it reduced. Federal law often tied the hands of judges, and forced them to impose punishment that was [...]
We are trying to get inmates out of unsafe prisons and jail one at a time. Today we won compassionate release for Corey Riley, who was incarcerated in California’s Lompoc prison complex. Lompoc has one of the highest rates of COVID-19 infection in the country. By some measures, half of the [...]
Since the COVID-19 pandemic has ground the criminal justice system to a virtual halt, there has been a chorus of calls – at both the local and national levels – for prisons to reduce their inmate populations. This is based on science: there are few places more susceptible to the spread of the [...]
The Fourth Circuit today issued a significant ruling that could help a large number of federal inmates who pleaded guilty to being a “felon in possession of a firearm,” in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g). The decision from the Fourth Circuit today stems from the Supreme Court’s decision last [...]
Brown Law has been contacted by many inmates and their families asking what relief is available for incarcerated individuals who are vulnerable to the coronavirus – whether because of age or medical condition. As of now, there are two groups that can potentially obtain relief: those who are [...]
With the rash of violence currently plaguing Baltimore, Governor Hogan and Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby are advocating for a bill that will address what they see as one of the major issues facing the city: witness intimidation. We think this bill is a bad idea. During his State [...]
Brown Law today filed a post-conviction petition on behalf of Derrien Douglas, who for more than a decade has maintained his innocence. Douglas was convicted of murder in Wicomico County, Maryland, and is currently serving a life sentence at North Branch Correctional Institution. His conviction was [...]
Jury trials are very rare in the federal system. Acquittals are even rarer. Despite the overwhelming odds, C. Justin Brown and Lylian Romero won a hard fought “not guilty” verdict last week, vindicating their client in United States v. Johnson, CCB-19-22. Johnson was charged with federal [...]
In the afternoon of April 15, 2008, Charles Atkins, a 26-year-old black man, was walking down a Baltimore street, about to meet a friend. Two plain-clothes police officers happened to be in the neighborhood, and they spotted Atkins walking by. They became interested in him because, they claimed, [...]