Marta Khan is “Of Counsel” to the firm. Ms. Kahn who received her Undergraduate Degree at Yale and her Juris Doctorate at Georgetown University, works on complicated legal research issues and has an appellate practice. Ms. Kahn has been representing criminal defendants in appeals from convictions in federal habeas corpus proceedings in both capital and non-capital cases for over twenty years. Practicing primarily in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, Ms. Kahn has also represented appellants in the Third Circuit, the DC Circuit and the state courts of Maryland and South Carolina.

     

Ms. Kahn’s successes include United States v. Bush, in which the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals articulated a clear and convincing standard for involuntary medication of criminal defendants found incompetent to stand trial. Ms. Bush’s charges were ultimately dismissed.  Ms. Kahn also successfully briefed and argued United States v. Fisher, in which the Fourth Circuit vacated Mr. Fisher’s plea in a habeas corpus proceeding due to misconduct which affected the voluntariness of the plea. In United States v. Stephen Digiovanni, William Purpura, successfully suppressed over a million dollars of oxycodone seized in a car search. The government appealed the District Court’s decision and Ms. Kahn briefed and argued the case before the Fourth Circuit. The Fourth Circuit unanimously affirmed the District Court’s decision, concluding that the suppression of the drugs was proper based on an unreasonable detention of the defendant.  The government subsequently dismissed all charges against Digiovanni.

 

Ms. Kahn’s success is not limited to the federal courts, recently in State of Maryland v. Karla Porter, a spousal abuse murder trial, Ms. Kahn again successfully briefed and argued an improper jury instruction, resulting in a reversal of a life sentence and a new trial.

     

Ms. Kahn when not writing and or arguing before Appellate Courts, spends her time as an Adjunct Professor at University of Maryland, Law School.