Beat The Prosecution- Fairfax, Virginia, Criminal Defense / DUI Lawyer

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Buddhist nun Venerable Thubten Chodron of Sravasti Abbey returns for a second time to talk with Fairfax, Virginia, criminal defense lawyer Jonathan Katz, this time to discuss Venerable's 2025 book incorporating experiential stories from inmates, and also the beautiful artwork by many of them, entitled The Key of Compassion- Finding Meaning Where You Least Expect It.
The ideal for a criminal defendant is to avoid conviction and incarceration. However, judges and court magistrates do not always grant pretrial release, and not all convicted people avoid incarceration. Consequently, this is the second Beat the Prosecution episode that removes the mystery about handling incarceration, and focuses on keeping grounded and resilient while detained. The first episode on that topic was with Fleet Maull, a dharma teacher who served a fourteen year sentence for a federal drug conviction at the end of the twentieth century. By removing the mystery of incarceration, criminal defendants can be bolder and more confident in fighting their prosecutions along with their lawyers. 
Jon Katz first heard of Venerable Chodron from Rodger Kamenetz's The Jew In the Lotus (where Chris Berlin's description of the jewel in the lotus is "boundless compassion that is fully responsive to suffering and moves us to alleviate that suffering unconditionally and spontaneously as we encounter it" and where om mani padme hum apparently praises the jewel in the lotus). As it happened, when Jon first  invited Venerable Chodron to this podcast, she and those at her abbey were already very involved with helping inmates, and The Key of Compassion was already in the works. 
Jon Katz recommends donating to Sravasti Abbey's Prison Dharma Fund, reading The Key of Compassion and also donating the book to prisons and other detention centers, for the availability of inmates. The best way to learn how to donate spiritual books to detention centers is probably to contact the institution's chaplain. 
This episode is also available on YouTube and Apple podcasts. 
This podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at info@KatzJustice.com, 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text). 

If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675

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Winning for criminal defendants integrates teaming up closely and well with our clients, life experience, successful trial experience, improving ourselves, and persuasively engaging others, for starters.

Our podcast guest Kimberly Benjamin, in Missouri, includes integrating the approaches of the Trial Lawyers College, the National College of DUI Defense and more to start obtaining justice for defendants even before any trial starts. 
I first learned about Kim through our connection to the Trial Lawyers College, which she attended and where Kim ultimately joined the staff. How necessarily frank was Kim when walking into her first meeting of the Missouri criminal defense lawyers association, asking where were the women, and then soon becoming a member of its board.
This episode is also available on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjHDLhhePg0 and Apple podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/winning-before-trial-even-begins-kim-benjamin/id1721413675?i=1000777978177

Fairfax Criminal Lawyer / Virginia DUI Attorney Jonathan L. Katz pursues your best defense against felony, misdemeanor, DUI, drug & sex prosecutions. Defending in Fairfax County, Arlington, Loudoun, Prince William & Beyond. 

Call 703-383-1100 for a free in-person consultation with Jon Katz about your court-pending criminal case. KatzJustice.com
This podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at info@KatzJustice.com, 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text). 

If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675

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Non-United States citizens are at more risk than in decades with their criminal cases, and many times starting while the prosecution is still pending in court. Harsh treatment of non-U.S. citizens did not start from whole cloth with Donald Trump, but he and his tough-on-immigrants supporters have taken the matter to an entirely higher quantum level. And still we have safeguards, including the Senate's non-action on H.R. 875, which would have made green card holders deportable for a conviction of driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs (aka DUI, DWI, OWI and OUI). 
With the situation for non-United States citizens and undocumented people in the United States getting no better -- and in many instances worse (for instance with the widespread application of no bond for immigration detainees) -- the time is ripe for the return after sixteen months of crimmigration expert Ofelia L. Calderón, to whom your host Fairfax criminal defense lawyer Jonathan Katz repeatedly turns for on-the-money advice and opinion letters for his non-United States citizen criminal defense clients. 
Criminal defense lawyers need to understand the immigration risks for certain convictions, sentences, and procedures.  In 2010, the United States Supreme Court included correct advice about adverse immigration consequences from criminal cases within the Sixth Amendment’s Effective Assistance of Counsel clause. Padilla v. Kentucky, 559 U.S. 356 (2010). Crimmigration law is so nuanced that no primer exists to teach this to criminal defense lawyers in but one sitting. This Virginia crimmigration chart from Amica does not end the essential learning needed by criminal defense lawyers, but at least propels the matter forward. 
Beyond the political winds that affect immigration law and enforcement policy, we have practical considerations that have been around for decades, including Crespo v. Holder, 631 F.3d 130 (4th Cir., Jan. 11, 2011), which lets us know to beware whether a seeming sweetheart deal is really a sweetheart deal when considering the adverse immigration, financial and personal consequences that can come from a wide panoply of criminal case dispositions. 
Furthermore, non-United States citizens without legal permanent residence / green cards need to be particularly cautious about leaving the United States while their criminal cases are pending in court. Learn much more about all of this and plenty more in this podcast episode. 
This podcast is also available on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYSoVvHK3PI and on Apple podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/winning-by-navigating-the-crimmigration-landmines/id1721413675?i=1000776851879
This podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at info@KatzJustice.com, 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text). 

If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675

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WINNING BY SOWING THE SEEDS OF EMPOWERMENT
Interviewee Leah Penniman and Fairfax criminal lawyer Jonathan Katz are good friends with Jon's essential peace teacher (and prior Beat the Prosecution podcast guest) Jun Yasuda, whose beautiful peace pagoda is less than two miles from Leah's Soul Fire Farm. 
Leah's story is one of never giving up nor giving in, which is also essential for criminal defense. She experienced substantial racism while growing up, and kept persevering, including with learning about farming. Long ago, Leah, her husband and children lived in an Albany food desert, and ultimately, she and her husband bought the farmland that is now Soul Fire Farm. 
Leah did not stop at merely opening a farm, but has a nonprofit to assist lower income people with food, and welcomes countless people to learn about self empowerment and farming. 
Leah tells some captivating stories, including about African women who would braid seeds into their hair, to have them available for planting in the event they were forced into slavery. 
Leah does not candy coat the hurdles in life, the history of racism (including in farming), and the continuing racism found too extensively in society. She recognizes those hurdles and continues persevering. 
Leah's thoughts on helping criminal defendants, are, aptly, for them to remember that they and all beings are sacred. 
I recommend donating to Soul Fire Farm, and reading Leah's books Farming While Black- Soul Fire Farm's Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land, and Black Earth Wisdom: Soulful Conversations with Black Environmentalists (2023). Coming next is Children of the Land: A Soul Fire Farm Parenting Guide, authored by Leah and her child Neshima. 
Here is the video version of this episode. Here is the Apple podcast version. 
This podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at info@KatzJustice.com, 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text). 

If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675

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Fleet Maull inspires Fairfax, Virginia, criminal defense lawyer Jonathan Katz for his extensive experience applying mindfulness with highly challenging situations, making the most of his fourteen years in prison for a drug conviction, and emerging from prison continuing to help inmates and by now helping so many people beyond those in the criminal justice system, with resilience while ready for the dangers that can lurk around the corner. (Check out this month's free online Somatic Healing Summit, where Fleet will be talking.)
When Jon Katz first met Fleet over ten years ago at a weekend program that Fleet was leading, Fleet included a great exercise that underlined that we can treat circumstances as neutral, which does not mean the absence of plenty of terrible world events, but that "we, not circumstances, are in charge of our lives and destiny." Radical Responsibliity, by Fleet Maull. Fleet also is great leading guided meditation, which he does early in this podcast episode with a few-minute sit. Fleet was trained in-depth in mindfulness at Naropa Institute (which became Naropa University) before getting convicted for alleged drug trafficking that apparently had taken place a good amount of time before being prosecuted. 
Fleet spent fourteen years in federal prison. No matter how much of a chunk of his adult life that represented, at least he avoided the even more draconian federal statutory criminal sentencing increases that took hold not long after he got convicted. 
Fleet does not candycoat his prison experience. He points out the racial disparities in the criminal "justice" system, his coming to terms that the people he was imprisoned with would be his "brothers and sisters" while there, six run-ins that could have taken an awful turn (and many more minor run-ins), the importance of not being passive nor too aggressive in prison, and knowing that people could walk in through an inmate's unlocked cell door and even kill them. 
Fleet made the best of his prison situation. Helped other inmates along the way, and emerged from prison -- whether immediately or later -- a ball of positive energy and inspiration. This Beat the Prosecution interview with Fleet Maull is riveting. 
This episode is also available on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi33kl8qIFQ and Apple Podcasts. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/winning-with-resilience-while-ready-for-danger-fleet-maull/id1721413675?i=1000772153117
This podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at info@KatzJustice.com, 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text). 

If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675