actual innocence
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Appeals judge suggests legislature clarify law providing compensation to exonerated defendants
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A member of Colorado’s second-highest court suggested last month that lawmakers clarify whether defendants are only supposed to be eligible for compensation when they are innocent of the specific crime they were convicted of, even if there is evidence their conduct still amounted to a different crime. In 2013, the legislature passed the Exoneration Act,…
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Colorado appeals court orders El Paso County judge to reopen case of man serving 100+ years
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Colorado’s second-highest court last week ordered an El Paso County judge to hold a hearing on an incarcerated man’s claim that he received constitutionally-ineffective assistance of counsel, based on his trial lawyer’s decision not to call multiple witnesses who would have corroborated the defendant’s alibi. Antonio Jose Vargas Jr. is serving a 96-year sentence for…
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State Supreme Court to scrutinize trial of man found responsible for 1991 double killing
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Although Timothy John Kennedy reportedly had no motive, left no conclusive DNA evidence at the crime scene, and could point to another suspect who was indisputably hatching a murder plot, an El Paso County jury convicted Kennedy in 2014 for an execution-style double homicide. But that trial, which took place after a judge overturned a…
